Candidates for the five Senate seats which cover parts of Madison County have spent just under $4 million so far.

The District 3 race between Republican Arthur Orr and Democrat Bobby Day is on track to be the costliest with $1.13 million spent so far.

Day reported $312,104 in campaign help in the past 30 days, mostly as in-kind contributions; $288,332 came from a political action committee controlled by Senate President Pro Tem Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe, and a handful of other Senate Democratic leaders. Barron gave $1,000, and his PAC - Tennessee Valley Citizens for Economic Development - contributed $5,000 directly to Day’s campaign in addition to the in-kind help for polling and advertising.

Day denied that the support from the Barron-led PAC will have any bearing on his decisions.

Yeah, right.  If you look carefully you can actually see the strings coming out of his back.

Day received $11,675 in contributions in the past 30 days. He spent $4,303 directly during that period and received $289,702 in in-kind help, mostly from the Barron-led PAC.

No one really likes him.

Orr raised $224,925 in the final 30 days and accepted $14,946 in in-kind help that includes $7,400 from the state Republican Party. Much of Orr’s financial help came from individuals and businesses, but he also accepted large contributions from major PACs, including $75,000 from the business-oriented ProgressPAC, $24,200 from the Alabama Farmers Federation PAC and $10,000 each from a general contractors PAC and a foresters PAC.

Orr said he has worked hard to raise money from a broad array of contributors. Orr said the major PAC contributions won’t deter him from being an independent voice who will vote the will of his constituents. Among the individual contributions to Orr’s campaign was $200 from Day’s Democratic primary opponent, former state Rep. Doc Mancuso of Decatur.

Interesting.  Even Democrats aren’t supporting Day.

Candidates for the District 8 Senate seat have spent a total of $1.03 million as of Thursday, with about half of that spent in the last month. Barron outspent Republican challenger Don Stout $464,427 to $109,465 during the reporting period. Stout, a Fort Payne businessman, ramped up his campaign only recently with some last-minute help from Republican-friendly PACs. The state Republican Party pumped in $76,971 for advertising.

Another costly race is the District 7 contest between Democrat Parker Griffith and Republican Cheryl Baswell-Guthrie. They have spent a total of $939,524 so far in the bid to replace Sen. Jeff Enfinger, D-Huntsville, who is retiring. The district encompasses most of Huntsville. But both are using mostly their own money.

Of the $726,240 spent so far by Griffith, $426,704 has come from personal loans to his campaign. Baswell-Guthrie has spent $213,284 so far, with $191,268 coming from her own money.

Griffith garnered a substantial amount of support in Huntsville a couple of years ago when he nearly defeated incumbent mayor Loretta Spencer.  Between that pre defined base of support and Griffith’s deep pockets deep pockets I feel for Baswell-Guthrie.

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This entry was posted by Brian on Friday, November 3rd, 2006 at 6:56 am and is filed under Madison County, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.