Klobuchar draws $950K, has $5.5 million in the bank, Bills brings in $243K

Posted at 4:21 PM on July 13, 2012 by Brett Neely
Filed under: Campaign 2012: U.S. Senate, U.S. Senate

UPDATE This post has been updated

WASHINGTON - Amy Klobuchar's Senate re-election campaign fund continues to grow. Her campaign announced Friday afternoon that she's raised more than $950,000 ahead of a July 15 Federal Election Commission deadline and has about $5.5 million cash on hand.

Her war chest grew by approximately $300,000 in the last three months, suggesting that her campaign's spending has begun to ramp up.

Klobuchar's Republican opponent, schoolteacher and state Rep. Kurt Bills, has not yet filed his fundraising totals with the FEC. When reached by phone Friday afternoon, Bills' campaign manager Mike Osskopp said, "We raised less," and promised to pass along those figures shortly. We'll update when he does.

UPDATE Bills' campaign announced raising $243,300 in the second quarter of the year and issued an attack on Klobuchar, calling her "the candidate of lawyers, lobbyists and bailed out Wall Street."

"Amy Klobuchar votes for bailouts and boondoggles. It's no surprise that the beneficiaries want to keep her in office," Osskopp said. The campaign has $64,681 in the bank.

Outside observers consider Klobuchar's to be a safe Democratic seat this campaign and her fundraising is, in some ways, indicative of that. Senate candidates in competitive seats have been raising far more this election cycle. For example, Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill brought in $2.6 million this quarter for her Senate re-election bid while next door in sparsely-populated North Dakota, the candidates for the open Senate seat there are each bringing in as much as Klobuchar has.

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