Friday, February 05, 2010

McCain war chest: $5 million and growing by Dan Nowicki The Arizona Republic


Feb. 5, 2010

Bracing for what could be his toughest re-election challenge in nearly 20 years, Sen. John McCain entered 2010 with more than $5 million in his campaign war chest.

McCain, an Arizona Republican seeking election to his fifth Senate term, raised $811,658 from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31 and spent $760,805 in the same period, leaving his campaign with $5.05 million on hand.

"That's respectable (fourth-quarter fundraising)," said Jennifer Duffy, who analyzes Senate races for the nonpartisan "Cook Political Report." "There's nothing wrong with those numbers."


In 1992, McCain ran for re-election for the first time as he was recovering from the "Keating Five" scandal and allegations that he and other senators intervened improperly with federal regulators on behalf of political supporter Charles H Keating Jr. But McCain still prevailed in a three-way race against Democrat Claire Sargent and former Republican Gov. Evan Mecham, who ran as an independent. His hasn't met stiff opposition for re-election since.

This year, though, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee faces the prospect of a rowdy fight against former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, Chris Simcox and Jim Deakin in the Aug. 24 Republican primary election.

McCain is starting the battle from a position of financial strength, a critical factor for campaign advertising and getting out the vote.

End-of-the-year financial reports, covering October, November and December, were due to the Federal Election Commission by midnight Sunday, but many Senate candidate filings have not yet been made public. McCain's campaign provided The Arizona Republic with the summary pages of his report.

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