Some of the out-of-state contributions were the result of a recent fund-raiser in Chicago. Next week, Huntsman will travel to New York City to solicit contributions. But his biggest contributor is Overstock.com executive Patrick Byrne, of Park City, who gave $75,000. Byrne is a family friend, said Chaffetz.

Chaffetz said a $1,000 contribution from the Sandy-based Taiwanese Association was returned. Chaffetz said keeping it would have violated a campaign pledge not to accept contributions from companies that do business with the state.

Huntsman hopes to raise $3.5 million by November. To date, the campaign has spent more than $2.4 million, more than twice Matheson's spending so far. Chaffetz said unlike the Democratic candidate, Huntsman had a convention battle and a primary.

"This may be the most hotly contested gubernatorial race in Utah's history. We've had to run three full-blown campaigns," Chaffetz said. "Our opponent was basically handed the nomination and hasn't had to run a race until now."

Chaffetz added much of that self-financing is loans that Huntsman Jr. expects to pay back to himself at a later date.

However, Huntsman Jr. has not paid back any of those loan funds yet, and with last week's Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll showing Huntsman's lead over Matheson shrinking, those loans may not be paid back this campaign season — the cash will go to TV ads, not back into Huntsman's pocket.

Huntsman's lieutenant governor running mate, Gary Herbert, appeared before the House GOP caucus Wednesday, telling fellow Republican officeholders that the Huntsman/Herbert team is confident it will win the governorship, "but we can't do it alone, we need your help."

Donors big, little

Matheson, meanwhile, has been tapping a number of traditional Democratic fund-raising sources. His biggest contributor is the Washington, D.C., party political action committee Democratic Governors. It has given Matheson in total $105,000, $40,000 of which is listed as in-kind research and voter lists. Overall, the PAC has given Matheson 9 percent of his funds and will contribute more over the next six weeks, said campaign manager Mike Zuhl.

"We're pleased where we are in fund raising," said Zuhl. "We have more than 2,500 individual donors, many donating $100 or less. Sixty percent of our donors are those small donors."

But a few weren't.

The Utah Education Association, the main teacher union, has given $17,546; the Utah Public Employees Association, the main state worker union, donated $38,124. Both those donations are in-kind, paying for part of Matheson's TV advertising production costs, said Zuhl.

Matheson has $206,000 in cash, Huntsman only $79,000.

Huntsman's relatively low cash balance is not a problem for that campaign. "We presume (Huntsman) could write a personal check for what he needs," said Zuhl.