Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning raised $302,466 from April through June for his re-election campaign next year, about half the haul of a potential GOP rival.
Republican Trey Grayson, Kentucky’s secretary of state, raised $603,164 during the same period.
The Kentucky Senate race has so far been an odd game of chess in which Bunning, considered the most vulnerable Republican senator up for re-election next year, has insisted he is running for re-election despite not-so-subtle hints from his GOP colleagues that they would like him to step aside. Meanwhile, two Republicans — Grayson and Republican Rand Paul — have readied campaigns without officially getting into the race.
Democrats have benefited as the Republican field has remained uncertain. Jack Conway, Kentucky’s attorney general, has eclipsed both Grayson and Bunning, raising $1.3 million since he entered the race in April. Bunning has only raised $1.2 million since he narrowly won re-election in 2004.
Another Democrat, Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo, reported raising about as much as Bunning in the second quarter. This would be a second run for Mongiardo, who came within about 23,000 votes of unseating Bunning five years ago.
On the GOP side, Rand Paul, the son of former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, said he’ll decide by Aug. 20 whether to jump in, regardless of whether Bunning is still in the race. He has raised about $100,000 since he formed an exploratory committee in May.
Grayson has insisted that he will not run if Bunning stays in the race, but has begun to assemble a campaign team. His pollster, Jan van Lohuizen, has also worked for Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell.
Van Lohuizen said in April that Grayson had begun raising money after Bunning gave him his blessing, further confusing political insiders trying to discern Bunning’s plans.
Tense relations between McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, and Bunning have so far been a central part of the race’s opening months. The two men barely speak and have sniped at each other through the press, with Bunning blaming GOP leaders for trying to dry up his fundraising and saying it would be better for his chances of re-election if McConnell didn’t endorse him.
Publicly, McConnell has skirted questions about whether he would endorse his GOP colleague and has said only that the GOP race “has not yet formed.”
Bunning and Grayson have about the same amount of money in the bank. Bunning has $595,571, and Grayson has $572,103. Both raised the majority of their money through individuals, not political action committees.
Several state and local officials contributed to Grayson’s campaign, including a handful of members of the state legislature and a few city council members. Grayson also received donations from at least three county judge executives and the mayor of Corbin, Ky.
Bunning appeared to receive little individual support from state officials or Senate colleagues this quarter, save a $2,000 donation from Ohio Sen. George Voinovich’s campaign. Voinovich is retiring at the end of next year.
