Rachel E. Stassen-Berger and Glenn Howatt
In the lackluster Republican primary this year, the four GOP gubernatorial candidates' spending is down, way down, compared to the three DFL gubernatorial candidates who vied in a 2010 primary.
The four -- Rep. Kurt Zellers, businessman Scott Honour, former Rep. Marty Seifert and Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson -- have raised 64 percent less than the three DFLers did four years ago, according to a Star Tribune analysis.
The Republican quartet has spent 71 percent less than DFLers Mark Dayton, House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher and former Rep. Matt Entenza did in 2010.
Republican candidates and their campaigns have said that many would-be Republican donors are waiting to see who emerges from Tuesday's primary before donating.
Unlike this year, the DFL race featured two candidates who were willing to spend vast amounts of their personal wealth to win the primary.
By this point four years ago, Dayton, who won the primary, had sunk more than $3.3 million into his campaign. Entenza, who is now running for state auditor, had invested almost $3.6 million into his gubernatorial run.
This year only Honour has spent much of his own cash into his race. He has invested more than $901,000 of his own money into his campaign. That's only a fraction of what the two well heeled Democrats spent on their campaigns by this point.
But even the lone non-millionaire in that DFL race, Kelliher, had raised more than three of the non-millionaires in the Republican race.
By this point in 2010, Kelliher had raised $1.2 million for her campaign.
Only Honour has exceeded that amount this year. He has raised almost $1.8 million.
The other three Republican candidates -- Zellers, Seifert and Johnson -- have raised half or less as much as Kelliher had by this point four years ago.
Dig into the numbers below:
