Published: July 16, 2008 02:01 pm      

Daniels maintains money lead

INDIANAPOLIS — Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels still has a big cash advantage over Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jill Long Thompson, but she raised nearly as much as he did in the latest quarterly reporting period.

Campaign reports released Tuesday showed that Thompson raised about $1.6 million from April 1 through June 30 as Daniels took in about $1.83 million.

But Daniels began the reporting period with nearly $5.3 million, compared with just $484,000 for Long Thompson. And despite prepaying for television commercials through August, Daniels reported having more than $2.8 million cash on hand as of June 30. Long Thompson had about $1 million left.

Daniels has outspent Long Thompson heavily so far this year — about $7.3 million to $1.46 million. But he began the year with a huge money advantage, and has been running television commercials nonstop since before the May 6 primary even though he did not face a primary opponent then.

Daniels campaign spokesman Cam Savage said the camp has not only prepaid for television commercials through the end of August, it will include some ads aired during the upcoming Olympics.

Long Thompson aired TV ads for about six weeks leading up to her narrow primary victory over Jim Schellinger on May 6, but has not been running TV spots since then.

Jeff Harris, Long Thompson’s campaign spokesman, said it was significant that she raised almost as much as an incumbent governor in the latest quarter.

“You have to remember we came out of that primary victory virtually broke and in seven weeks we were able to amass $1.6 million,” Harris said. “This race is extremely competitive.”

About half of the $1.6 million came from two Washington, D.C.-based political action committees. Emily’s list, an organization that tries to get Democratic women who support abortion rights elected, gave $200,000 to Long Thompson in the second quarter. Its total for the year is $400,000.

The Service Employees International Union, which represents employees in industries including health care, property services and government, gave Long Thompson $600,000 in the second quarter, and since July 1 has given another $25,000. It gave her $100,000 earlier in the year.

Savage said of the $1.82 million Daniels raised in the latest quarter, just over $1 million came from individuals. According to Long Thompson’s report, about $464,000 of her second-quarter donations came from individuals.

Among some of Daniels’ biggest contributors in the second quarter were Herb Simon, co-chairman of the Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group and a co-owner of the Indiana Pacers, and the law firm Bose McKinney & Evans. They each gave $25,000. Wal-Mart Pac gave $23,000.

Savage said the Daniels campaign spent $17 million during his run for governor in 2004, and is well ahead of that fundraising pace.

“Our greatest challenge is going to be continuing to stay on pace while out-of-state interest groups come in and support the Thompson campaign to the tune of millions of dollars,” Savage said.

Harris said Long Thompson would soon begin airing television commercials again.