Pat Roberts’ campaign raises more than $2 million since July 17

U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts has raised more than $2 million since July in his bid for a fourth term, while his opponent has had to dip into his personal wealth to keep pace.

Roberts has raised nearly $7 million and has spent nearly $6.5 million since the beginning of the election cycle. Election cycles start the day after the previous election, so Roberts’ cycle goes back to November 2008.

Nearly half of Roberts’ total fundraising this election cycle has come from political action committees.

Roberts, who was first elected to Congress in 1980, faces a tough re-election fight against independent Greg Orman.

Orman, an advocate for campaign finance reform, has taken no money from political action committees.

Orman raised about $1.7 million between July 17 and Sept. 30, putting his total since he started in March at about $2.4 million. But about half of that has come out of his own pocket.

Orman, whose net worth ranges between $20 million and $90 million, has given his campaign more than $1 million of his own money and has loaned it another $200,000.

The Roberts campaign raised $1.6 million between July 17 and Sept. 30 and then raised another $580,000 between Oct. 1 and 15, according to two campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission this month.

The Roberts campaign has spent about $2.8 million since July, including nearly $1 million between Oct. 1 and 15.

Orman’s campaign spent more than $2.2 million and as of Sept. 30 had about $120,000 cash on hand.

However, Orman’s fundraising report that covers the period between Oct. 1 and 15 has not yet been posted by the FEC, so his campaign coffers may have filled significantly since September.

Roberts has received nearly $3.5 million from political action committees this cycle – about half of his total – with about $1 million of that coming since July 17.

He has received $68,500 from the Votesane PAC, a group that functions as the Amazon.com of politics by allowing donors to compare and select candidates online.

Many of the other PACs to write Roberts checks are affiliated with corporations from a wide variety of industries.

The PAC representing dairy giant Land O’Lakes gave Roberts $7,500. Bank of America’s PAC gave the senator $7,000, as did the Ford Motor Co.’s.

The Growth Energy PAC, which supports ethanol producers, gave Roberts $10,000. The National Pork Producers Council gave him $9,750.

Roberts has the support of fast-food royalty. Burger King’s franchisee PAC gave him $2,000. Roberts even got $5,000 from Orman’s former employer, Kansas City Power and Light.

Roberts also got $4,000 from Halliburton, the world’s second-largest oilfield services company, which was involved in the massive oil spill off the Gulf Coast in 2010.

The individual donors supporting Roberts’ campaign include several notable names.

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld gave Roberts a check for $2,600 in September. Rumsfeld’s wife gave the senator the same amount.

Rumsfeld was one of the primary proponents of invading Iraq during the George W. Bush presidency. Roberts chaired the special committee in 2004 that investigated intelligence failures leading up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Roberts received $2,600 from Charles Schwab, the billionaire financial mogul who owns the San Francisco-based brokerage company of the same name.

He also received money from several state lawmakers. Rep. Mark Hutton, R-Wichita, gave Roberts $2,600. Hutton’s wife gave the same amount.

Roberts has also received $5,200 in contributions from Anne Hodgdon, a member of the State Board of Healing Arts. The Milton Wolf campaign accused her of leaking Facebook posts to the Topeka Capital-Journal in which Wolf, the tea party candidate, mocked X-rays of dead and wounded people.

The Wolf campaign also alleged that Hodgdon had initiated an investigation into the matter. The Roberts campaign ran a series of ads about the issue, which Wolf blamed for his loss in the primary election.

In an open letter to Kansas citizens published in August, Hodgdon denied that she had leaked the material or started the investigation.

Hodgdon’s husband also gave Roberts $5,200.

Without PAC donations, Orman has relied on individual donors, most of them giving donations of $500 or less. However, there are some notable standouts.

Phil Ruffin, the Las Vegas businessman who owns the currently shuttered Wichita Greyhound Park, gave Orman $5,200.

He received that same amount from Mukesh Patel, a portfolio manager who lives in Connecticut.

Among Kansas residents, Orman received $5,200 from Debra Almond, an interior decorator from Leawood, and $5,000 from Allen Erskine, the owner of a Lenexa-based home improvement company.

Matthew Condon, an attorney from Fairway, and his wife, Carrie, each gave the candidate $4,600.

Orman also received $1,000 from Art Petrie, a Las Vegas real estate developer with whom Orman has had several business ventures. Petrie’s wife gave Orman $500.

Petrie has been a frequent donor to the Nevada Democratic Party and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

This story was originally published October 28, 2014 at 1:03 PM with the headline "Pat Roberts’ campaign raises more than $2 million since July 17."