Topeka — Republicans outnumber Democrats in Kansas by about 2-to-1, but Democrat Kathleen Sebelius is raising more campaign funds than all Republicans in the governor's race combined, according to finance reports filed Thursday.
"Kathleen is extremely gratified by the support given to her by so many, many people," said Stephen Martino, who is Sebelius' finance director.
According to the finance reports covering 2001, Sebelius raised $628,670, spent $74,237 and has $554,433 cash on hand. She is considered the only major Democratic candidate.
On the Republican side, Atty. Gen. Carla Stovall reported raising $308,715, spending $6,802 with $301,913 cash on hand in her gubernatorial war chest. State Treasurer Tim Shallenburger raised $138,421, spent $24,201 and had $114,220 on hand.
Wichita Mayor Bob Knight, who recently announced he is considering running for governor, transferred $45,680 from his mayoral committee and had $35,780 on hand after spending $9,900 on a poll.
A spokesman for Shallenburger's campaign said he was satisfied with its fund-raising effort, and noted that $130,000 of Stovall's total came from Kent Glasscock, the Kansas House speaker who dropped out of the governor's race to run with Stovall as lieutenant governor. The Stovall campaign said the finance report does not reflect contributions that Glasscock received during his short bid for governor. If that were taken into account, Stovall's total contributions would be $428,000, according to the Stovall campaign.
Sebelius also received a large infusion from her insurance commissioner campaign account $142,178.
"We're right on track," said Bob Murray, Shallenburger's campaign spokesman.
Stovall spokesman Scott Holeman said the campaign was satisfied with the amount of money it had raised, noting that the Stovall-Glasscock campaign didn't start until mid-November.
The campaign reports also show that Stovall has received campaign contributions from computer companies that have been fighting Microsoft the target of a lawsuit by Stovall and the attorneys general of eight other states.
Stovall received $2,000 from Oracle Corp., $2,000 from the Oracle Corp. political action committee and $1,000 from Sun Microsystems.
Holeman said the contributions had no relation to the lawsuit that Stovall has pursued against Microsoft. He said the lawsuit against Microsoft is an effort to level the playing field in the competitive computer world.
"The attorney general has been challenging Microsoft for three years. She has been running for governor for two months," Holeman said.
Conservative Republicans have criticized Stovall for continuing the litigation against Microsoft when the federal government and other states have reached a settlement with the company over allegations of anti-trust violations.
Other finance reports show that:
In the race for the GOP nomination for insurance commissioner, state Sen. Sandy Praeger, R-Lawrence, has raised $47,755 and spent $2,513; Walker Hendrix of Lawrence, who is chief attorney for the Citizens Utility Ratepayer Board and has said he is considering a run, raised $8,837 and spent $105; and Bryan Riley of Wichita, raised $4,825 and spent $2,767.
In other campaign developments, although Sebelius has not officially announced her candidacy for governor, her campaign has a telephone number where workers answer, "Kathleen Sebelius campaign," and they refer to Joyce Allegrucci as the campaign manager. Allegrucci recently left the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services where she was in charge of children's services and foster care.
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