Posted by John Chase at 2:15 p.m.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias announced today that he raised $1.2 million from January through March — about $1 million less than his Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk.
While Giannoulias trails Kirk in the political donations game, he still had what his campaign said was his best three month period of fundraising ever.
The campaign cash announcements for the single-term state treasurer and North Shore congressman are the first since both men won their respective February primaries. Giannoulias and Kirk are vying to replace U.S. Sen. Roland Burris, who was appointed by ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich to the seat Barack Obama left after he was elected president. Burris did not run for election.
Giannoulias’ campaign said it has $1.2 million on hand, compared to $3 million for Kirk, at the start of April.
Giannoulias’ camp said their candidate is behind Kirk because Giannoulias has tied his own hands for fundraising by refusing to accept contributions from corporate political action committees or federal lobbyists. Giannoulias said Monday that he had raised less than Kirk and would say how much less today.
Kirk’s campaign released a statement saying Kirk’s fundraising advantage shows he has more support than Giannoulias. Kirk’s campaign also said that Giannoulias does accept contributions from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic National Committee, both of which receive corporate PAC dollars.
Neither campaign has released its financial reports detailing where their money is coming from. Those forms must be filed with the Federal Election Commission by Thursday.