Chafee challengers raising hundreds of thousands of dollars.PROVIDENCE, R.I. --Candidates hoping to unseat Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee in next yea's U.S. Senate race have each reported raising hundreds of thousands of dollars so far.
Stephen Laffey, a Republican, reported nearly $380,000 in campaign contributions since entering the Senate race a month ago, according to a survey of the 2006 Senate candidates taken by The Providence Journal.
Laffey said he now has almost $600,000, which includes a personal loan, in his campaign war chest.
"We're off to a powerful start," Laffey said.
Among Democrats, former Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse said he received about $600,000 in the fund-raising quarter that ended Sept. 30. Whitehouse, who declared his candidacy at the end of March, has more than $1.3 million in cash on hand.
Secretary of State Matt Brown took in more than $400,000 in the third quarter and has about $600,000 total in the bank.
Laffey and Whitehouse have loaned their campaigns about $360,000.
Chafee did not report his third-quarter fund-raising totals for the newspaper's survey. But he raised more than $500,000 in the first two quarters of 2005 combined.
The candidates are required to file public reports about their campaign contributions later this month.
Jennifer Duffy, an analyst of Senate races for The Cook Political Report in Washington, D.C., cautioned against making too much of Laffey's success in quickly raising a large amount of money.
"Your first quarter should be the easiest," Duffy told the Journal. "This is when you get all your friends to help. This is when you make 100 calls and get 99 yeses. After this, it gets much harder."
Chafee was appointed to the Senate in 1999 to fill the vacancy created when his father, Sen. John Chafee, died. He won a full term in 2000 and is seeking re-election.
