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Franken raises $2.2 million in first quarter
Senate DFL hopeful outraises incumbent, but has less cash on hand.
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DFL Senate candidate Al Franken raised nearly $2.2 million in campaign contributions during the first quarter of 2008, his campaign announced today.
That amount surpasses the $2 million that Sen. Norm Coleman's campaign this week reported raising in the same period, and tops the $1.9 million that Franken pulled in during the last three months of 2007.
But Franken's campaign also reported having roughly $3.5 million in the bank, about half of the $7 million that Coleman's campaign said it had on hand this week.
Coleman has raised about $12.4 million for the campaign, compared with more than $9.2 million reported by Franken.
Campaign officials with Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, who is running against Franken for the DFL endorsement, said they will release his fundraising numbers next week. However, they said that the St. Thomas professor had raised more than $250,000 in the last quarter and had about $200,000 on hand.
More than 95,000 people have contributed to the Franken campaign, officials said, of whom some 16,000 were Minnesotans -- about 17 percent. Nearly 5,000 Minnesotans contributed to the Franken campaign in the first quarter, they said.
Chris McNellis, Nelson-Pallmeyer's campaign manager, said that about 95 percent of his donors are Minnesotans.
In other fundraising reports:
• The campaign of U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, the DFLer who represents Minnesota's First District, said that it raised $352,000 in the first quarter this year.
That makes a total of $1.5 million raised for the congressman's first reelection effort, officials said. Walz has more than $1 million in the bank.
About 5,300 people have contributed to the 2008 Walz campaign, including more than 1,200 new donors in the first quarter, the campaign said.
• Democrat Steve Sarvi, who hopes to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. John Kline in the Second District race, raised $61,108 in the first three months this year and now has a total of $38,672 in cash on hand.
Sarvi, an Iraq veteran, has announced that he's resigning as Victoria city administrator on May 9 to be a full-time candidate. "We're feeling optimistic that when he has six or seven more hours a day to devote to fundraising, that things are going to improve substantially," campaign spokeswoman Bridget Cusick said.
Businessman Peter Idusogie, who is also seeking the DFL nomination in the Second District race, said Thursday that he doesn't plan to raise enough money to report until he receives the nomination. He said he's using campaign signs from his 2004 run for the party nomination, which he lost to Teresa Daly.
Kline, a three-term congressman, raised $194,106 in the first quarter, leaving him with $510,000 in the bank.
kduchschere@startribune.com • 612-673-4455
ejohns@startribune.com • 952-882-9056
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