PA. SENATE RACE Specter nears $10M mark, records show

Specter's opponent's camp says it's had a great fund-raising quarter.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Arlen Specter, bracing for a bruising Republican primary next spring, is approaching the $10 million mark in fund-raising for his race for re-election, according to campaign finance documents released Tuesday.
The tally comes as Specter, who is seeking a fifth term, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars over the last three months on radio and TV advertisements that largely target GOP challenger Rep. Pat Toomey.
Specter has $9.3 million in cash on hand, according to FEC documents released by his campaign. Overall, Specter raised $1.35 million between July 1 and September 30, the most recent Federal Election Commission reporting period, and spent $746,649.
"Clearly, voters in the state have not been swayed by Rep. Toomey's name-calling, misrepresentations and attacks," said Specter spokesman, William Reynolds.
Toomey's campaign boasted its "most successful fund-raising quarter yet," said spokesman Joe Sterns, pulling in $779,685 during the three-month period. Toomey spent $489,738 and has $1.8 million on hand, documents show.
Congressional analyst Tripp Baird of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, predicted that Specter will have to deal with Toomey beyond saturating the airwaves with costly commercials.
Increasing bank account
Meanwhile, Democratic hopeful Rep. Joe Hoeffel, D-Pa., more than doubled his Senate bank account this quarter, pulling in $642,700, including $180,000 rolled over from his House campaign. He spent $17,252 and has $625,447 on hand, spokesman Tom Hickey said.
Hoeffel has the backing of most state Democrats, including Gov. Ed Rendell. He faces a primary challenge of his own, however, from Charlie Crystle, a political newcomer and software developer from Lancaster who would not immediately release his own quarterly report but called it "anemic."
Specter's finances will almost certainly put him once again among the most cash-flush Senate hopefuls of the 2003-2004 election cycle nationally. That pack has been led by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who had $16.5 million in the bank midway though the year. At that point, Specter ranked third, with $8.6 million, just behind Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., who had $10.6 million.
The FEC filing deadline for the reports is today.