State by State

Alabama

The four Republican candidates for next week’s runoffs turned in similar fundraising numbers over the weekend, leaving them on roughly equal financial footing for the stretch run.

Each candidate reported raising between $120,000 and $170,000 from May 15 to June 25. The reports were due in advance of the July 15 primary runoff.

{mosads}State Rep. Harri Anne Smith outraised state Rep. Jay Love in the 2nd district, $170,000 to $150,000. But Love maintained a $160,000-to-$100,000 advantage in cash.

In the 5th district, attorney Cheryl Baswell Guthrie raised $150,000 to insurance executive Wayne Parker’s $120,000. But Baswell Guthrie had just $5,000 in cash on hand, compared to $50,000 for Parker.

Parker came up just shy of avoiding the runoff, taking 49 percent in the primary. Love took the higher percentage of the primary vote and is the apparent favorite on his side.

— Aaron Blake

Arizona

Former Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) is no longer supporting the Republican candidate trying to recapture his old seat from Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Kolbe told the Sierra Vista Herald that he will “not be actively campaigning” for state Sen. Tim Bee anymore. Bee hopes to unseat the first-term Giffords this fall in Arizona’s 8th district, which leans Republican.

A spokesman for the Bee campaign confirmed Kolbe’s move, saying Kolbe would not be campaigning for “personal reasons.”

Kolbe had previously held a fundraiser in Washington for Bee.

Bee, who is president of the Arizona Senate, cast the deciding vote in late June in favor of placing a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage on this fall’s ballot.

Kolbe, who retired in 2006, came out as gay in the mid-1990s.

— Michael O’Brien

Georgia

Rep. John Barrow (D) raised $260,000 over the last three months, as he braces for a primary challenge next week.

Barrow now has $1 million cash on hand. His primary opponent, state Sen. Regina Thomas, still hadn’t filed a Federal Election Commission (FEC) report Monday, and her campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

FEC reports were due early in Georgia, because the primary is July 15. They cover April 1 through June 25.

In the general election, Barrow would face a meagerly funded challenger in former congressional aide John Stone. Stone raised $70,000 and had $30,000 in cash.

In the 10th district, Rep. Paul Broun (R) and his primary challenger, state Rep. Barry Fleming, continued their back-and-forth fundraising battle.

Broun outraised Fleming nearly 2-to-1, pulling in $290,000. But Fleming maintains a $340,000-to-$200,000 edge in cash on hand.

In the 8th district, Rep. Jim Marshall (D) and GOP challenger Rick Goddard both raised around $160,000. Goddard holds a large edge in cash, though, $1.3 million to $460,000.

— A.B.

The American Hospital Association’s (AHA) political action committee has launched a small radio buy supporting Rep. John Lewis’s (D) 5th district reelection bid.

The AHA spent $44,000 on the buy, targeted at the July 15 primary.

“We have been supporters of [Lewis] for a long time,” explained Mark Seklecki, AHA’s vice president of political affairs. “He has a good track record of support for healthcare issues over the years, and our members in Atlanta are very supportive of him.”

Lewis, an 11-term incumbent, has run unopposed for the seat since 2000 and is heavily favored to defeat his two challengers in this year’s race: Atlanta-area minister Markel Hutchins and state Rep. “Able” Mable Thomas.

But Seklecki pointed to unpredictable voter turnout as one reason for the group’s decision to release the ad, adding that no matter how heavily favored Lewis is, “we want to make sure he comes back.”

— Joey Michalakes

Kentucky

Incumbent Republican Rep. Geoff Davis leads Democratic challenger Michael Kelley by 13 points, according to a recent poll by SurveyUSA.

Asking 550 likely voters who they would vote for, 54 percent said Davis, while 41 percent said they would vote for Kelley.

Davis has been a top Democratic target but appears to have escaped a top opponent this cycle. He represents Northern Kentucky and its Cincinnati suburbs and has been in office since 2004.

— David Matthews

Louisiana

“Pro-life, pro-gun, fiscally conservative” Democrat Jim Harlan announced his candidacy for Congress on YouTube on Independence Day, bringing a self-funding challenger to recently elected Republican Rep. Steve Scalise this fall.

Harlan, who was a registered independent until February, attended the Democratic Convention earlier this year for the district’s special election in March and decided to get involved.

“He didn’t think [Scalise] would do a good job in Congress, and decided he might as well do it by himself,” campaign manager Joel Coon said. “The more he saw of the [campaign] process, the more he thought about it.”

Scalise rolled in the general election, and the district is one of the most conservative in the country. But Democrats feel they can at least force Republicans to spend money on the race.

Harlan made his money, according to Coon, building up factories across the country and internationally for a wide variety of technologies and businesses. He will report more than $500,000 to the Federal Elections Commission later this month, which is more than what incumbent Scalise reported in the first quarter.

The $500,000 is mostly Harlan’s personal wealth, Coon said, “but he hasn’t begun to raise the money he can.”

The district’s first closed party primary will be on Sept. 6.

— D.M.

Minnesota

The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, an interest group trying to preserve private voting rules for union members, has launched an ad campaign supporting Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and opposing Democratic candidate Al Franken in Minnesota’s Senate race.

The ad features “Sopranos” alumnus Vincent Curatola (“Johnny Sack”), tongue planted firmly in cheek, acting as a mobster who removes a cut-out Coleman from the scene in favor of Franken.

“Guy’s a hero,” Curatola’s character says of Coleman. “I hate heroes.”

This is not Curatola’s first appearance in a political ad. Last summer, he appeared in an online video for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) presidential campaign spoofing the infamous final scene of the “Sopranos” series.

— M.O.