U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa has spent nearly $1 million on her campaign for the U.S. Senate while the incumbent, Brian Schatz, has spent nearly $1.8 million.

Going into the last few weeks of the primary season, Hanabusa has $767,000 left in cash while Schatz has twice as much — more than $1.4 million.

That’s a lot of money.

But, according to this charticle in Roll Call, the Hawaii Senate race is a far more modest affair compared with a lot of other states.

Federal fundraising reports from April 1 through June 30 show that Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has spent $3.6 million so far and has $9.8 million in cash.

McConnell faces Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes in the general election; she’s shelled out $2.7 million and has $6.1 million left to play with.

Money wad

Flickr: AMagill

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Lindsey Graham, the Republican incumbent of South Carolina, has spent almost $5 million.

Thad Cochran, the Republican incumbent in Mississippi, spent more than $4 million to fend off a not-very-well-funded tea party challenger.

Of course, Hawaii is a small state with a modest-sized media market.

The winner of the Schatz-Hanabusa race will likely not have to spend very much at all in the general election, where Republican opposition is not expected to be formidable.

But even in Alaska, which has about half the population of Hawaii but a far larger geographical size, Senate races can be expensive.

Just ask Mark Begich, the Democratic senator who has spent almost $2 million so far on his re-election and has $2.1 million still to spend.

Three Republicans are vying for the honor to face Begich in the general, including Dan Sullivan, who has spent $1.3 million and has $1.7 million remaining.

 

 

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