Late cash pours in for candidates

Almost all of the last-minute donations to Utah's congressional races are flooding to the front-runners, and they are coming from out-of-state, special-interest groups.

For example, 2nd District Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, received nearly $50,000 in last-minute donations so far this month. About $4 of every $5 of it has come from out of state and from special-interest political action committees, according to pre-election disclosure forms filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission.

In contrast, his Republican opponent, Bill Dew, reported only $4,800 in last-minute contributions so far this month — or about a tenth of what has gone to Matheson. But all of the donations to him came from within Utah, and none came from PACs.

Somewhat similarly in the 3rd District, front-runner Jason Chaffetz (the Republican who defeated Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, in the primary) raised

almost $44,000 in late donations so far this month, and $9 of every $10 came from out-of-state PACs.

His opponent, Democrat Bennion Spencer, raised only $2,500, only about a twentieth of what Chaffetz received in late donations. All of it was from out-of-state, labor-union PACs.

The 1st District candidates — Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, and Democrat Morgan Bowen — had not yet filed disclosure forms for their late donations (and had until midnight Thursday to do so, after Deseret News print deadlines).

PACs have long been known to invest most heavily in incumbents or other front-runners who they feel are likely to win, and not waste money on long shots. That often puts challengers in a deep financial hole.

It's one reason that retired homebuilder Dew, for example, has loaned his campaign a whopping $570,000 out of his own pocket (about $9 of every $10 he raised) to be competitive. Even with that personal financing, Matheson has outraised him by nearly a 3-1 margin, mostly with the help of PACs.

Of note, Matheson had four individual PACs give him at least $5,000 this month in late donations — meaning each of them gave him more than Dew managed to raise from all donors combined in last-minute contributions.

In updated campaign-to-date totals, Matheson has outraised all other Utah congressional candidates combined. He has raised $1.7 million, while all the others combined have raised less than $1.4 million. Matheson's opponent, Dew, has raised $652,648 so far.

Chaffetz has raised $402,456 compared to Spencer's $36,986, an 11-1 margin. The lion's share of Chaffetz's money (and almost all of his PAC money) came after he defeated Cannon in the June primary and suddenly became the front-runner to win the heavily GOP-voting seat.

While 1st District candidates had not filed their pre-election reports, their third-quarter reports filed last week showed that as of Sept. 30, Bishop had raised $243,665 compared to $13,649 for Bowen, an 18-1 margin for Bishop.

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E-mail: lee@desnews.com