Former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker infused his campaign for the republican nomination for the US Senate, with 1.7 million dollars of his own money.
That’s in addition to the 1-million he’s raised in campaign donations since April. The latest round of campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission today show that former Congressman Ed Bryant raised just over 450,000 dollars. Former Congressman Van Hilleary raised the least at 415,000.
Corker’s campaign said today that he put the extra money in to defend against his opponent’s attacks. But Tennessee State University political science professor John Miglietta says the intense primary may hurt the chances of whichever candidate wins the nomination.
“In some ways probably the winner in all this might be actually, Harold Ford because the more the Republicans can bruise themselves in the primaries, the better it might be for him in the general election, if you have a Republican candidate that has pretty much spent all his money in the primary, or spent a lot of it in the primary, and has all these wounds from attacks by the other candidates.
Hilleary and Bryant have been attacking Corker’s record on abortion and taxes for most of the race, and Corker returned fire this week with a new ad criticizing both opponents on their congressional records and roles as lobbyists after leaving Congress. Corker has 1.2 million in cash on hand, Hilleary has about 700,000 and Bryant has just over 600,000 dollars.
The likely democratic nominee, Congressman Harold Ford Junior, raised nearly 2-million dollars in the quarter ending July 14th, leaving him with 1.84 million in cash on hand.
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