POLITICS Voinovich's spending dwarfs that of Fingerhut

Incumbents in Ohio are raising more money than their opponents are.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican Sen. George Voinovich has spent 10 times as much money campaigning as Democratic challenger Eric Fingerhut in the last three months, according to reports released Friday.
Voinovich's $2.9 million in spending dwarfed Fingerhut's $305,000, according the campaign finance reports from the Federal Election Commission. Voinovich, former Ohio governor, also outraised Fingerhut, a state senator, about 4-1 during the last reporting period. Voinovich took in $903,000 compared to Fingerhut's $245,000.
The reports, which cover July 1 through Sept. 30, also showed that Republican Rep. Steve LaTourette, who is running against millionaire shopping center heiress Capri Cafaro in the 14th District, raised half a million dollars.
Cafaro's report wasn't immediately available, but it was expected to show an $800,000 contribution that Cafaro made to her own campaign during the last period.
Why this matters
With the Nov. 2 election a little more than two weeks away, the amount of money candidates have left to spend is especially significant.
According to the reports, Voinovich, who has raised $8.4 million in all, has half of that amount left to spend. Fingerhut, a state senator from Cleveland who has raised $1.1 million for his campaign, has $93,276 on hand.
LaTourette still has about $1.2 million to spend.
Elsewhere in Ohio, incumbent lawmakers continued to raise substantially more than their competitors. Some members of Congress have raised so much money that they've given some money to their national party to help in targeted races.
Reps. Deborah Pryce, Mike Oxley and Bob Ney donated a combined $782,500 to the National Republican Congressional Committee.