Hatch campaign is rolling in dough

U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch has a lot of money.

Well, certainly his campaign does — more money than any other campaign in Utah history when measured against outside donations. And he's getting richer each day as he continues to raise funds, even though he has nearly $3 million in cash.

New Federal Election Commission reports show that Hatch has raised $6.2 million since his last re-election six years ago, he has $2.75 million in cash nine days out from the Nov. 7 election.

Hatch, well ahead in the polls over Democratic challenger Pete Ashdown, delayed starting running expensive TV ads until Monday. He has three ads rotating through a local TV buy, with ads running through Election Day, said Dave Hansen, Hatch's campaign manager.

"What candidate doesn't want to fund raise when he can?" asked Hansen, saying it is common practice to fund raise right through to Election Day no matter what balances a candidate may have in the bank.

But against any measure of previous Utah races, Hatch has gone fund-raising mad. Some previous Utah candidates may have spent more money on their campaigns via donating their own money, but no one has raised more cash from others than Hatch. Hatch has raised $3.59 million from individuals; $2.19 million from political action committees.

He raised $550,000 from Utahns at an August fund-raiser attended by President Bush in downtown Salt Lake City.

Ashdown, by comparison, has raised $227,000 in his whole campaign that spans 18 months of fund raising.

Hatch raised double that at an hour-long luncheon with the Republican president.

Ashdown says there is nothing good about the current campaign fund-raising system. "There are only things wrong. Politics need to change so that everyone who has the will and good ideas to bring to Congress has the opportunity to do so."

Ashdown "strongly supports" a partial public funding system such as Arizona's. To qualify for public funds, a candidate there must raise a certain number of $5 individual donations. There's a group of former U.S. congressmen pushing a similar federal system called "Just $6." Ashdown likes their ideas.

Why did Hatch work so hard at fund raising this election?

"You want to have the funds available to combat whatever may come at you," says Hansen, who has been in the campaign business for 25 years, including once heading up the national Republican Party's U.S. Senate races in the West.

What if a billionaire like George Soros decided "he didn't like Orrin Hatch and dropped $2 million into TV ads to beat us up?" asked Hansen. "We could afford to immediately spend $1 million to defend ourselves."