GOP primary costing millions

Jon Huntsman Jr. said months ago his race for governor may end up costing $5 million.

He's well on his way to spending that much.

New campaign finance reports filed Tuesday show Huntsman, who leads fellow Republican Nolan Karras in the polls and in overall spending as next week's primary approaches, has raised nearly $1.5 million so far and spent $1.3 million.

Deseret Morning News graphic Campaign donors Requires Adobe Acrobat.

Karras has raised nearly $1 million and spent just over $900,000.

Huntsman and Karras are locked in an expensive primary fight. And accordingly, Huntsman had just $134,784 in cash as of last week. Karras had $91,795 as of this week, aides said.

Democratic candidate Scott Matheson Jr., who had no intraparty convention or primary battles, has raised $572,771 and spent just $162,552.

Matheson has $410,218 in cash on hand and so is more prepared now for the long summer campaign. "We've been working very hard on it, while trying to be as efficient as we can," said Matheson, knowing a well-financed Republican awaits after the GOP primary.

This is Matheson's first official financial filing, although through press releases he's talked about his campaign fund raising previously.

Huntsman is the oldest son of industrialist and philanthropist Jon Huntsman Sr., one of Utah's few billionaires.

So far, Huntsman Jr. and his wife have loaned or given his campaign $320,000, various reports show. Between Huntsman Jr. himself, his extended family and in-kind donations made to his campaign by the Huntsman Chemical Corp. (the main campaign office is in Huntsman headquarters at Research Park), the campaign has received more than $541,000.

That's around 37 percent of the nearly $1.47 million raised by Huntsman Jr.

Karras has given his campaign $100,000, or about 10 percent of his funds raised. Recently Karras said he doesn't anticipate "writing another check" to personally subsidize his race.