Washington ? Raise it, spend it, save it, even borrow it. Everything you can do with money, Kansans running for Congress are doing it, and in record amounts.

Newly filed federal election reports show that in the most competitive U.S. House district, the suburbs around Kansas City, Kan., two Republicans have taken out loans of $100,000 or more in seeking to challenge two-term Democratic Rep. Dennis Moore.

“It’s pretty scary these guys aren’t even in Congress yet, and they’re already deficit-spending,” said Tom Sawyer, the Kansas Democratic Party chairman. “If they’re willing to put their own campaigns into debt, how much into debt are they willing to put the government?”

One of the borrowers, pilot Adam Taff, chuckled at the partisan jab. Plastic Surgeon Jeff Colyer loaned his campaign $100,000 last year and another $30,000 this year.

“I would have preferred not to have done it, but I’m not going to let another person beat me on that front and cut a check to himself,” Taff said. “A lot of people judge the strength of your candidacy by your dollar amount, so I knew early on that I was going to need to show a similar commitment and sacrifice.”

Colyer’s spokesman said Moore “is going to be a tough cookie to beat, and it’s going to require a lot of money.”

“Jeff wanted to show his commitment to this race and restoring Republican leadership to a Republican district,” said spokesman Ryan Horn.

The reports are due on file Monday with the Federal Election Commission and cover the first three months of the year.

Moore reported the biggest campaign war chest: $661,050 cash on hand. He raised $162,728 in the past three months, but he also spent $86,435, which included more than $20,000 for two polls. His spending was more than double that of the other incumbents, but Moore’s spokesman pointed out he spent about the same amount of money at this point in the 2000 election cycle.

Colyer reported $300,335 cash on hand, more than the two previous GOP nominees combined. He raised $152,836 over the past three months, bringing his net total for the cycle to $185,463, not including the $130,000 loan.

Taff reported $164,997 cash on hand, raising $83,995 for the election cycle, not counting the $100,000 loan.

Another GOP primary candidate, Sprint Corp. executive Bill Grassie, did not yet have a report on file and did not immediately return a telephone call.

In the Wichita-area 4th District, Democratic challenger Carlos Nolla reported raising more money over the past three months than Republican Rep. Todd Tiahrt. Nolla took in $93,812 to Tiahrt’s $85,255.

Tiahrt said he wasn’t surprised; the four-term congressman said his focus has been on his job, in particular lobbying for new military tanker aircraft to be built at Boeing Wichita. Tiahrt allowed that he didn’t make fund-raising phone calls to Kansas donors over the past three months, although he said he did make calls for Washington fund-raising events.

“This quarter, my focus is going to gradually change toward the campaign, now that I got this tied down to Wichita,” Tiarht said.