Up through the convention, Cannon had raised and spent nearly half a million dollars since his 2004 re-election. Being an incumbent — who have financial resources far beyond out-of-office challengers — nearly all of that cash came from individuals and political action committees.

But Cannon had only around $60,000 in cash the Monday after the convention, where he placed a surprising second behind Jacob.

Cannon has loaned his campaign nearly $18,000 in cash, his pre-convention Federal Election Commission report shows. Hunter said Cannon has not given his campaign any more since that filing.

Cannon likewise will be running radio ads, perhaps TV ads, soon, Hunter said.

Jacob categorically denies that he has been siphoning money out of his various business enterprises, pinching them financially, to pay for his political campaign.

At the state GOP convention, a delegate said it appears that Jacob has not been paying some of his "contractors" in a timely manner.

"I have no clue" about any employee or contractor who may have not been paid in a timely manner, Jacob said. "I've paid everyone on time." Jacob guesses that perhaps one of the "contractors" who sells and/or makes presentations at the Makeu Corp. may be complaining.

Jacob owns 48 percent of Makeu and used to be a majority stockholder before selling some of his interest a year ago. Makeu sells computer training libraries to businesses for between $35,000 and $40,000 a pop. It's a successful, money-making business, Jacob said.

"I hire CEOs to run these corporations. I don't make any payment decisions myself," said Jacob. But, he adds, Makeu has payment schedules with its independent contractors and to his knowledge no one has not been paid according to the schedules, which have not been changed during his political campaign.

Earlier this year, Jacob told the newspaper that while he had tens of millions of dollars in various investments, he also owed millions of dollars through loans and other debts. "I'm not very liquid," he said at the time, adding that he would probably have to sell some assets to raise personal money for his campaign. Jacob said he may spend more than $1 million through the general election, if he got that far.

Jacob said his net worth is around $19 million. Monday, Jacob said over the last several months he's sold "around half a million" dollars worth of investments to raise money for his campaign, including "an extra house" at Eagle Mountain and some land out of state. All of his sales were at fair market value, he said, none was at an inflated price.

Jacob said he would never do anything to "try and cheat the (political campaign funding) system."

"Why am I here trying to make changes" in a bloated, unresponsive federal Congress "and then do things dirty to make it so I get" into high office? he said. "That would be against the whole principle of being" in Congress "in the first place."

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com