By Janet Williams
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS—Special interests, political action committees and individuals combined to pour more than $9.5 million into Indiana’s Senate race in the third quarter that ended Sept. 30, with the overall amount raised topping $28 million.

Republican challenger Mike Braun, a Jasper businessman, pulled in nearly $5.7 million compared to the incumbent Democrat, U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly, who reported close to $3.9 million in donations.

The contest between Braun and Donnelly is one of the most closely watched in the nation as Democrats battle to hang onto the seat and possibly gain control of the Senate. Most polls have shown the candidates to be in a statistical dead heat with Libertarian Lucy Brenton playing only a marginal role in the contest.

That money fuels the endless loop of attack ads the candidate’s fire at each other.

OpenSecrets.org, a nonpartisan website that tracks campaign spending, reports that the overall cost of the 2018 midterm elections is an all-time high at $3.9 billion. And there are still nearly three weeks to go before the Nov. 6 election.

Fundraising and spending in the 2018 Indiana race are already ahead of 2012 when Donnelly beat Republican Richard Mourdock in the race for the open Senate seat. That year, the candidates combined raised about $14.5 million.

And fundraising is ahead of the 2016 contest between Republican Todd Young who defeated Democrat Evan Bayh. That year, about $15 million poured into the race, with Young outraising Bayh by a two-to-one margin.

Donnelly’s money comes mostly from individual donors, small and large, with about a quarter from political action committees like the Democratic group ACTBLUE. About 13 percent of his money is from donors giving less than $200 and more than half comes from large individual donors.

More than 60 percent of Braun’s money comes from the candidate himself with 4 percent from small individual donors and more than a quarter from large donors. In fact, of the $5.7 million Braun raised in the current cycle, about $2.4 million came from his own bank account.

The 2018 campaign finance reports on file with the Federal Election Commission also show that Braun has outspent his rival so far—$11.5 million compared to Donnelly’s $10 million. That means going into the final weeks Braun has about $1.9 million cash on hand compared to Donnelly’s $4.5 million.

FOOTNOTES: Janet Williams is executive editor of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.