Former U.S. Sen. George Allen raised $1.1 million in the second quarter of the year in his bid to reclaim his seat, the campaign announced on Wednesday. The Virginia Republican’s fundraising totals amount to half of the $2.25 million that his Democratic opponent, former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, raised during the same period. But Kaine, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, entered the race late and has burned through a significant portion of his funding, leaving him on nearly equal footing with Allen when it comes to the candidates’ total cash on hand for the quarter ending June 30.
Kaine will report having between $1.7 million and $1.8 million in cash on hand when he files with the Federal Election Commission this week, while Allen will report having roughly $1.65 million.
“We expected Chairman Kaine to be a formidable fundraiser,” said Katie Wright, a spokeswoman for the Allen campaign. “As former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, he has a wide national fundraising base. But we were encouraged by our strong quarter and enthusiastic about momentum building across the state.”
The candidates, both former Virginia governors, are running neck-and-neck in the latest polls. Kaine won 43 percent of votes and Allen had 42 percent of votes in the most recent Quinnipiac poll. Allen was elected the 67th governor of Virginia in the early 1990s and served one term under the state’s term limits. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000 and left six years later when he was defeated by Democratic Sen. Jim Webb, who is retiring in 2012.
Kaine, Virginia governor from 2006 to 2010, is still riding on the momentum of his chairmanship of the DNC — a position that helped boost his national profile and gave him access to an invaluable Rolodex of Democratic donors.
Though he outperformed Allen in the most recent quarter of fundraising, Kaine is trailing in overall year-to-date fundraising, because he entered the race three months behind his opponent. Allen’s year-to-date fundraising total is roughly $2.6 million, compared with Kaine’s $2.25 million.
Kaine said on Wednesday that he will need to raise between $15 million and $20 million for his 2012 campaign.
“I don’t have personal money to put into a campaign,” Kaine said on C-SPAN’s “American Morning.”
