New Federal Election Commission filings show at least $20 million is being spent on reelecting U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, with much of it coming from out of state.
Challenger Kelly Tshibaka’s campaign is attracting more money from within Alaska than Murkowski’s campaign, the records show.
Overall, efforts to return Murkowski to the Senate are drawing three times as much money as efforts to replace her with Tshibaka, a fellow Republican with the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.
Murkowski is drawing more campaign contributions from Florida, Trump’s state of residence, than her challenger, with $318,437 compared to Tshibaka’s $173,556 from Florida contributors. Tshibaka, however, has the fundraising lead in Alaska.
The latest campaign finance reports, due on Saturday and posted online by the Federal Election Commission, show that almost $1.5 million of Tshibaka’s campaign income of $4.3 million has come from Alaska contributors compared with about $1 million for Murkowski, whose total campaign receipts through Sept. 30 were reported as $10.5 million.
Murkowski is also benefiting from two independent expenditure groups, Alaskans for L.I.S.A. and the Senate Leadership Fund, which are showing total receipts of $4.5 million and $4.4 million to be spent on securing a fourth term for the first Alaska-born member of Congress, according to campaign finance records.
A third and fourth candidate will also appear on the ballot on Nov. 8 in the U.S. Senate race. Democrat Pat Chesbro is showing campaign receipts of $174,378. Republican Buzz Kelley has pulled out of the race and is supporting Tshibaka.
A state-by-state comparison shows residents of Texas have contributed over $1 million to Alaska’s U.S. Senate race with $822,000 going to Murkowski’s campaign. Tshibaka has collected a little over $288,000 from people in The Lone Star State.
Significant contributions are also coming out of California with Murkowski collecting about $710,000 to Tshibaka’s $170,000.
Murkowski is leading Tshibaka in fundraising in 40 states. States where residents are contributing more to Tshibaka’s campaign include Wyoming, Iowa, New Mexico, Nebraska, Kansas, Hawaii, South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi.
Tshibaka is collecting many more small donations than is Murkowski with $1.6 million worth of contributions worth $200 or less. The senator has collected $566,457 worth of contributions under $200, according to the FEC reports.
Contributions worth $2,000 or more added up to over $4 million for Murkowski and about $1.4 million for Tshibaka.
Murkowski’s campaign has about $3.5 million cash on hand compared with Tshibaka’s campaign with about $1 million.
Contact staff writer Amanda Bohman at 907-459-7545, at abohman@newsminer.com or follow her at twitter.com/FDNMborough.
