While incumbent Republican Congressman Denny Rehberg still holds a sizable lead over all challengers in money raised during the campaign for his U.S. House seat, the recent filing period shows that there is no clear frontrunner on the Democratic side.
Dennis McDonald, the former chair of the state Democrats, has long been the presumed favorite in his party’s primary. But Tyler Gernant, the 27-year-old Missoula attorney, raised twice as much cash than McDonald in the latest reporting period.<a href="http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_ca654bc2-6a12-11df-a8c9-001cc4c03286.html" title=" From the Billings Gazette:”> From the Billings Gazette:
Looking just at contributions, Gernant doubled McDonald’s total contributions for the latest reporting period, collecting about $21,550 to McDonald’s nearly $10,500.
However, McDonald’s $18,000 loan the past seven weeks boosted his total campaign receipts for the period to about $28,450. For the entire campaign, McDonald has loaned his campaign more than $27,800, compared with Gernant’s previous loan of more than $1,800.
The numbers are indicative of what is shaping up to be a tight race on the Dem’s side.