Despite the best fundraising efforts of Democrats, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Mark Kirk raised nearly twice as much money in the first quarter of 2010 than his rival, Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias.
Giannoulias raised $1.2 million, according to his campaign, while Kirk, a North Shore congressman, raised $2.2 million. The men are fighting to take over Barack Obama's old seat.
Giannoulias' take marked the Democrats' best fundraising quarter to date. But Kirk's success marks another challenge for the Giannoulias campaign, which is working to improve Giannoulias' image amid disclosures his family' bank may fail.
Neither candidate has filed electronically with the Federal Election Comission, a move that would allow the public to have easier access to campaign finance reports as soon as they are filed with the agency.
Kathleen Strand, Giannoulias' campaign spokeswoman, says the campaign will file its paper report on Thursday. Spokespeople for Kirk's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Giannoulias has said that he is not taking money from corporate political action committees or federal lobbyists, and his campaign says that, as well as a primary battle with David Hoffman, led to a slow fundraising start in the general election.
Kirk had primary opponents, but none of his Republican rivals approached Hoffman's presence on the Democratic side.
"I am proud of our campaign's historic pledge not to take money from these corporate special interests," Giannoulias wrote in an e-mail to supporters, "but that means we are going to have to work even harder to fight back against the Republican smears."
The Republican's campaign says that while Giannoulias himself may not take money from corporate PACs or federal lobbyists, he has secondarily accepted it through contributions from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic National Committee, "which can funnel millions of dollars in corporate PAC contributions to his campaign."
Windy Citizen 