Franken has $2.18 million for final stretch

WASHINGTON - With less than two weeks until Election Day DFL Sen. Al Franken appears to be maintaining his hefty financial edge over Republican candidate Mike McFadden.

In its most recent filing with the Federal Election Commission, Franken's campaign says the first term senator raised $666,000 in the first two weeks of October and has $2.18 million cash on hand.

The McFadden campaign did not respond to a request for information on its FEC filing, which is due by midnight tonight. But given that McFadden has been consistently out-fundraised by Franken and reported holding $1 million at the end of September, it's unlikely to have closed the financial gap between the two campaigns within two weeks.

McFadden's campaign says it has $729,508 cash on hand, and that it raised $522,536 between October 1 and 15.

“Our campaign’s outstanding fundraising is proof that Minnesotans are hungry for a Senator who will serve as a check and balance to the Obama agenda,” said Carl Kuhl, McFadden's campaign manager. “By exceeding our fundraising goal, our campaign will be boosting our TV ad buys in the final 13 days of the election and we continue to hold Senator Franken accountable for voting with President Obama 97 percent of the time."

Franken has used his financial resources to saturate the airwaves with ads touting his record and criticizing McFadden.

The most recent poll of the race by KSTP and SurveyUSA showed Franken with a 15 point lead over McFadden.

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