Dan Coats Outraises Foes For GOP Senate Bid

Dan Coats and Chris Dickson

Dan Coats for Indiana
http://dancoatsforindiana.blogspot.com

Sylvia A Smith

Washington editor

WASHINGTON – Dan Coats primed the pump with a $25,000 infusion from his personal bank account into his campaign for the Republican nomination for Senate and headed into the final weeks of the campaign with $331,057 on hand.

He is one of five Republicans jostling to be the GOP nominee for the seat being vacated by Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., who announced he is not running for re-election.

Don Bates reported $52,250 in the bank as of March 31 and said he has $45,300 in unpaid campaign bills.

He raised $86,865 from individual donors and none from political action committees.

The other candidates in the May 4 primary – Marlin Stutzman, Richard Behney and John Hostettler – did not respond to requests for copies of their reports, which were due by midnight Thursday.

Coats did not enter the campaign until early February and in less than two months had raised $292,049 from individuals and $62,250 from PACs.

His campaign provided summary information of the January-through-March campaign report, which does not include the details of who gave money. However, some donors have filed their own reports. PACs controlled by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Thad Cochran, R-Miss., each sent Coats $5,000. A PAC controlled by Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., donated $10,000.

Coats, a former senator and Washington lobbyist, was expected to easily tap into donors to power his campaign.

Rep. Brad Ellsworth, D-8th, the likely Democratic nominee, reported he had $1 million in the bank as of March 31. He started the year with $519,643 and raised $621,819 in the first three months of the year.

He collected $314,676 from individuals and $301,892 from PACs.

Ellsworth received the maximum $10,000 from at least 15 PACs: American Association for Justice, American Crystal Sugar Co., American Federation of State County and Municipal Workers, National Association of Credit Unions, Home Depot, International Association of Bridge Workers, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Midwest Region Laborers, PricewaterhouseCoopers, SAIC Inc., United Food and Commercial Workers, and PACs operated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid; Sen. Dan Inouye, D-Hawaii; Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.; and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.

sylviasmith@jg.net