Anchorage Daily News

Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich hauled in more than a million dollars in just the past three months for his campaign to win the seat of longtime Alaska Sen. Ted. Stevens.

"We're very excited," said Begich spokeswoman Julie Hasquet. "We have a huge war chest we're up against. We're just going to have to keep plugging away."

Begich has shown he can raise money fast since entering the race at the end of April. But the Republican Stevens also continues to raise campaign money at a good clip, according to the new federal campaign finance reports out Tuesday. Stevens reported raising $745,000 over the past three months. That left him, after expenses, with a remaining campaign treasury account of $1.68 million.

Stevens has around double the cash on hand that Begich reported after campaign expenses.

Stevens said in a written statement that "we have continued to have strong support from hundreds of Alaskan donors."

David Cuddy, who is running against Stevens in the Republican primary for the Senate, said he's raised just around $10,000 in the past three months. Cuddy has spent about $130,000 on his campaign so far -- mostly out of his own pocket.

"It's very hard running against a 40-year incumbent and with the economy the way it is," Cuddy said.

Cuddy said he doesn't get the "lobbyist and special interest" money that Stevens does. Cuddy challenged Stevens in 1996 for the Republican nomination and spent roughly $1 million, most of that from his own bank account. Cuddy said he's not prepared to spend as much of his money this time and will lose the primary unless he can get people excited about his views of a federal budget that's not loaded with "pork" projects.

Ray Metcalfe, who is running against Begich in the Democratic primary, said he's raised "not much for money." Metcalfe said he's been more focused on proving his allegations that Begich has improper financial relationships with Anchorage developers. Begich says Metcalfe's claims are baseless.

The details of Begich's and Stevens' campaign contribution and spending reports were released Tuesday and combine thousands of pages. They'll be closely analyzed over the coming days but an immediate scan through Stevens' report shows Alaska donors as well as money from Citigroup, the American Cable Association, the United States Telecom Association, Southwest Air, Clear Channel Communications and lobbying firms.

Begich's report, available on his campaign Web site, also shows Alaska donors as well as money from several unions, the abortion-rights group NARAL, the American Association for Justice lawyers group and political action committees of Senate Democrats. Begich also picked up a lot of small donations via the Internet through the ActBlue Democratic political action committee.

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