Berkley’s campaign raises $1.1 million

Suzanne Struglinski

Monday, Feb. 2, 2004 | 10:43 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., raised a little more than $1.1 million last year for her re-election bid, keeping her on par with her last election campaign.

Berkley and the rest of the congressional delegation had to file year-end fund-raising reports for 2003 with the Federal Election Commission on Saturday.

Berkley's $1 million was rounded off by $215,000 collected from October to December. She raised $176,000 from July through September. She received $35,581 from political action committees in the last quarter, with $302,777 in from PACs during the year.

She had $971,000 on hand at the end of the year.

Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., raised just over $921,000 in 2003, with about $157,000 coming between October and December, according to the reports filed Saturday. This is a slight decrease from the $184,000 raised between July and October, but also does not reflect the fund-raiser with Vice President Dick Cheney earlier this month. Porter has $489,981 cash on hand in his campaign coffers.

In his first bid for the new 3rd Congressional District seat in 2002, Porter had raised $578,489 at this point and had $415,734 cash on hand.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who opted not to run against Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., for his seat, raised $490,516 last year, with $130,555 coming the during the final months of 2003. He had raised $140,000 in the three months prior. He took a total of $7,536 from political party donors last year and $153,197 from political action committees. Gibbons had $478,976 cash on hand as of Saturday.

Carl Forti, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said Gibbons has a fairly safe seat and has plenty of money on hand to run his campaign.

As for Porter, Forti said it is a swing district, nearly split between registered Republicans and Democrats, but the freshman congressman is "in great financial shape."

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee could not be reached this morning.