Candidates and their supporters spent more than $7 million in Southeast Tennessee last year to vie for one of two $174,000-a-year jobs in the U.S. Congress, according to new financial disclosures.
Despite the recession – or perhaps because of it – a record amount of money filled the coffers of both candidate campaigns and independent groups trying to fill the seat being vacated by Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., in Tennessee’s 3rd Congressional District and to oust U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn., in Tennessee’s 4th Congressional District.
Chuck Fleischmann, the Chattanooga attorney elected to succeed Wamp, poured nearly $700,000 of his own money into his campaign, with most of the dollars spent in the GOP primary.
Fleischmann is yet to be repaid for any of those personal loans to his campaign, although he said he hopes to eventually recoup up to $250,000 of his campaign loans through fundraising this year.
Chip Saltsman, Fleischmann’s campaign manager last year, said Fleischmann plans to begin fundraising for the next congressional campaign this month.