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The amount of money a candidate brings in is often seen as a test of political viability.
“People like to back who they think are going to be winners," said Kate Kenski, a University of Arizona political communications specialist. "If someone doesn’t seem to have any momentum in terms of gaining, than people who are better aligned with that candidate are going to be less likely to invest."
In southern Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, which includes Marana and Oro Valley, three candidates were required to fill out campaign finance reports with the Federal Election Commission.
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Democrat Tom O’Halleran raised $120,000. He spent very little of the money he collected.
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Republican Ken Bennett raised $110,000 in the third quarter and added it to the money he raised earlier. His campaign account has about $113,000.
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Republican businessman Gary Kiehne mounted his second run for Congress. Like two years ago, he is using his own money to finance much of his campaign. He did raise $85,000 dollars over the last three months. His campaign war chest contains nearly $600,000.
The others in the race did not throw their hats in the ring soon enough to be required to file reports for the third quarter.
Self-financing is nothing new. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is financing much of his own campaign.
“There are self-financed candidates who went on to be quite successful, then in other states there have been races where the self financed candidate was discounted in ways,” said Kenski.
In the 2nd Congressional District, incumbent Republican Martha McSally leads the fundraising.
She added nearly $800,000 to her campaign account. About one-quarter of her money came from outside Arizona.
Democratic challenger Matt Heinz brought in $200,000. A little less than half of that money came from Arizona.
Victoria Steele, a Democrat from Tucson, raised about $54,000 dollars. Nearly all of her donations came from Arizona.
Many candidates are just beginning their campaigns, so while fundraising is a factor it is too early to definitively say who will have the money for the long campaign season.
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