FRANKFORT, Ky. — With two months to go before the May 18 Republican primary election for U.S. Senate, the top two candidates said Tuesday their campaigns have raised more than $2 million each.
David Adams, campaign manager for Bowling Green eye surgeon Rand Paul, said the campaign reached its goal of $2 million last night.
"We're very pleased with the outpouring of support," Adams said. "The poll numbers and contributions definitely show where this race is headed."
Paul, son of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, had set the $2 million goal last August. His campaign is planning another "money bomb," which raises funds through the Internet, on March 23.
Paul's campaign said more than 17,000 donors have contributed. The average contribution is about $100, Adams said.
The campaign for Secretary of State Trey Grayson said it crossed the $2 million mark last month. Grayson's campaign manager, Nate Hodson, said Paul's "attempt to break into the family business has benefited from his father's decades of being a wily political operative.
"Trey is proud to have kept pace with such a seasoned political dynasty and knows that it will take more than donations from his father's political network to convince Kentuckians that Rand is the right choice for Kentucky."
The lionshare of donations Paul received last year — 75 percent — came from out of state donors, many of whom also contributed to his father's failed 2008 presidential bid, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission data by the Center for Responsive Politics. Contributors from Dallas, Houston and Boston donated just over $60,000 to the younger Paul's efforts,
Grayson received the most in political action committee funds of any U.S. Senate candidate in Kentucky, just over $250,000, which accounted for roughly 15 percent of his campaign contributions. Much of the funding came from business focused groups. Alabama GOP Sen. Richard Shelby's Defend America PAC contributed $10,000.
Details of the campaigns' finances for the first three months of 2010 don't have to be filed with the Federal Election Commission until next month.
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