NASHVILLE – Gubernatorial candidate Mike McWherter spent nearly $930,000 on television ads from Oct. 1 through Oct. 23, but Republican Bill Haslam continued to hold the edge in campaign advertising with expenditures of about $1.25 million in ads, new disclosures show.
The candidates’ pre-general election disclosures, filed Tuesday with the state Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance and the last disclosure before Tuesday’s general election, also show McWherter loaned his campaign $500,000 on Oct. 14 and raised $71,475, bringing his personal campaign loans to $1.5 million.
But Haslam, who previously loaned his campaign an estimated $3.49 million, continued to hold a fundraising advantage, reporting $1.22 million in total receipts in the Oct. 1-23 period.
The disclosure also shows $255,000 of in-kind contributions to the Haslam campaign from the Tennessee Legislative Campaign Committee, a Tennessee Republican Party campaign committee.
State Democrats offered no similar aid to McWherter, who trails Haslam by double digits in the latest polls.
In comments Tuesday night, McWherter said his $500,000 loan “absolutely made sure we’d have our media campaign up and running all through the month of October … We wanted to make sure we peaked at just the right time.”
He charged that voters are “tired of seeing [Haslam’s] ads and tired of the fact that he doesn’t say anything or stand for anything in those ads.”
For complete details, see tomorrow’s Times Free Press.