However, Buttars' Democratic challenger, John Rendell, has far out-raised Buttars this year. Buttars is in such good financial shape because he carried over $76,977 from 2007 — raised before his general session gaffe.

Buttars has gotten $10,000 from the Senate Republican Campaign Committee — the Senate Republicans' PAC; $5,000 from the Utah County Legislative PAC (overseen by Valentine; Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, R-Provo; and Rep. Becky Lockhart, R-Provo); and $5,000 from Sen. Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse, (who is reportedly in a close leadership race with Bramble).

Rendell has raised $45,708 so far this year and has $21,436 in cash on hand.

Raising large sums of cash in legislative races not only discourages any challenger, since Utah law allows campaign cash to be used for any legal purpose — even just giving it to yourself — large cash reserves can be used to run for higher office some day or reimburse officeholders for out-of-pocket expenses lost in the low-pay Legislature.

Most legislative races are not close in financial resources. For example, analysis by the Deseret News shows that the average incumbent raised about twice as much as the average challenger this year and had about five times as much money on hand (thanks to donations raised in previous years).

Incumbents averaged about $16,000 in donations this year, compared to about $8,500 for challengers. In cash on hand, incumbents averaged about $23,200 compared to $4,200 for challengers.

Following are a few races that bucked such trends and are relatively close in cash on hand:

House District 5: Rep. Curt Webb, R-Logan, ($3,847 cash on hand) vs. Democrat Suzanne Marychild ($4,178).

House District 29: Rep. Janice Fisher, D-Salt Lake, ($3,328 cash on hand) vs. Republican Phil Conder ($6,701) — a rare case of a challenger having more money than an incumbent.

House District 36: Rep. Phil Riesen, D-Salt Lake, ($7,156 cash on hand) vs. Republican Drew Quinn ($7,195).

House District 47: Rep. Steven Mascaro, R-West Jordan, ($5,680 cash on hand) vs. Democrat Jennifer Wolfe ($7,535) — another case of a challenger with more than an incumbent.

House District 51: Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper, ($11,140 cash on hand) vs. Democrat Lisa Johnson ($10,971).

House District 58: Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem, ($20,127 cash on hand) vs. Democrat Steve Baugh ($22,401), another case of a challenger with more than an incumbent.

House District 59: Rep. Lorie Fowlke, R-Orem, ($7,117 cash on hand) vs. Democrat Paul Thompson ($10,861), another case with a challenger with more than an incumbent.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com; lee@desnews.com