With Election Day less than 72 hours away, candidates for Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District continued to collect campaign contributions as late as Saturday, each raising thousands of dollars and sending the combined total for funds raised by the campaigns to nearly $3 million.
Quarterly finance reports filed at the end of September showed former Ashland County District Attorney Sean Duffy had raised $1.47 million since the campaign began, racking up an extra $276,000 from Aug. 26 to Sept. 30. Although state Sen. Julie Lassa, who got into the race months after Duffy, managed to outraise her Republican opponent in September -- collecting nearly $320,000 -- her fundraising total was roughly $866,000 at the time.
Since then, Duffy's ability to fill campaign coffers has only increased.
According to campaign finance reports available on the Federal Election Commission's website, Duffy raised $365,000 from Oct. 1 to 30, bringing his fundraising total to $1.84 million as of Saturday.
Lassa netted $217,000 during the same period, bringing her fundraising total to $1.08 million.
The bulk of donations to both campaigns in the last two weeks came in the form of larger -- $1,000 to $5,000 -- donations. Some have come from individuals, but many are from Political Action Committees and other political groups.
For instance, Duffy raised more than $98,700 between Oct. 22 and 28, according to the filings, which included $1,000 donations from the Sun Health Care PAC, Capitol One PAC and Retail Leaders PAC, and two $2,500 donations from the Citizens United Political Victory Fund.
In the same time period, Lassa raised $59,300, with $2,000 donations from the Sierra Club and the National Organization to Maintain the Majority, a $1,000 donation from the Midwest Values PAC, and a $2,400 donation from the Ho-Chunk Nation.
Voters won't know the full amount raised by the campaigns until post-election reports are filed later in November.
