Thompson reports having $1.3 million on hand

WLUK TV

Updated: Oct 25, 2012 5:31 PM

GREEN BAY — With less than two weeks until the general election, the battle for Wisconsin's open U.S. Senate seat has millions of dollars involved.

Thursday was the deadline for the campaigns to file their final campaign finance reports with the Federal Election Commission before the general election.

Republican Tommy Thompson's campaign says it has $1.3 million cash on hand leading up to the general election against Democrat Tammy Baldwin.
    
Thompson reported his latest spending totals Thursday evening.

The campaign spokesman says the campaign raised $1.6 million during the 17-day reporting period of October, totaling $6.4 million for the campaign. The spokesman did not say how much money the campaign has spent in recent weeks. But according to filings with the FEC, the campaign spent more than $3.7 million through September.
    
The spokesman says Thompson is in a strong financial position heading into the final stretch.

Baldwin had not reported hers by late afternoon. But according to the FEC, Baldwin's campaign raised more than $11.3 million, spent $8.5 million and has $3.5 million in cash on hand through September.

According to a Marquette University Law School poll released last week, Thompson and Baldwin are in dead heat, despite the two politicians trading poll spots in September and October.

Political experts say Thursday's filings show even more money is flowing into the already tight race.

"In order to maintain the momentum for both sides, you're going to see them trying to dump as much money on the airwaves and on the ground to try and make sure that turnout is high,” explained St. Norbert College political science professor Charley Jacobs. “And convince the last remaining undecided voters to vote in their favor."

And getting that help to convince undecided voters is also coming from out of the state.

The Center for Responsive Politics, a self-proclaimed nonpartisan political tracking group, puts the total for outside spending on both campaigns at a little more than $27.5 million.

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