Front-runners miles ahead in money

When it comes to raising money, the front-runners in Utah's congressional races are miles — make that light years — ahead of their opponents, outraising them by margins of 3-1 or 11-1.

That forces the challengers to find creative ways to skimp on campaign costs and prevents them from advertising in more expensive mediums, especially TV.

Disclosure forms filed Wednesday for the third quarter show that Rep. Jim Matheson has outraised Republican Bill Dew by a 3-1 margin (even though Dew has poured $570,000 of his own money into the race). 3rd District GOP nominee Jason Chaffetz has outraised Democrat Bennion Spencer by an 11-1 margin.

1st District Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, has raised a total of $243,665. His opponent, Democrat Morgan Bowen, did not provide a requested copy of his mailed-in disclosure form. Filing by mail is allowed only for those who raise less than $50,000 for their entire campaign. That means Bishop is outraising Bowen by a minimum of 5-1, and likely more.

Matheson is the king of fundraising among the remaining Utah congressional candidates, raising $1.67 million — or more than all the others have raised combined. About $4 of every $5 of his total came from special-interest political action committees.

Matheson, a four-term incumbent, had nearly $1 million in cash on hand as of Sept. 30, which has allowed him to air frequent, expensive TV ads. "It's not the first time I faced someone who can self-fund a race. I can't just write myself a check. So that reinforces why I am aggressive in fundraising," he said.

Dew, a retired homebuilder who is facing Matheson, poured another $210,000 of his own money into his campaign in the past quarter. He has loaned it a total of $570,000 so far, or about $9 of every $10 he has managed to raise.

With that, he reported $204,000 cash on hand. Alan Crooks, general consultant to Dew, said Dew does not expect to put more of his money into the campaign, but is poised to do so if needed —but has been keeping costs down to stretch money for ads.

Disclosure forms show, for example, that Dew and staff have been buying many supplies at discount Wal-Mart, and staying in cheap Motel 6s.

"We even double up in rooms at Motel 6," Crooks said. The campaign also washes and reuses the t-shirts that volunteers wear during parades, instead of providing them as gifts. "The shirts have been through 21 or 22 parades. We've gotten every cent's worth out of their $4 cost" each, Crooks said.