Franken raises $2.2 million in first quarter

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.

• 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.

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