Money — lots of it — banked for campaign finale

The battle for control of Minnesota's Legislature has already consumed many millions and will be augmented by millions more, meaning voters in areas with targeted races will be exposed to no shortage of mail, radio and television ads.

New reports from candidates, political parties and outside groups active in Minnesota's state House and Senate races were due to regulators on Tuesday. The disclosures, covering activity from Jan. 1 to Sept. 20, became public on Wednesday.

The reports showed majority Senate DFLers had a wide cash advantage over Republicans. The Senate DFL had $1.3 million banked as of last week after spending about $2.4 million already; Senate Republicans had spent about $806,000 since the beginning of the year and had only $293,000 in reserve. But $500,000 of its spending was in the form of a money transfer to an outside group that will do late advertising in key races.

In the House, where Republicans are in the majority, the cash chase was closer. Republicans narrowly trailed Democrats in available cash _  about $20,000 separated the two funds that had in excess of $1.1 million each in the bank. But Democrats had spent more already in their pursuit of a chamber flip.

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That's not the full story, though, because outside groups always loom large in the legislative campaigns.

The pro-Democratic Alliance for a Better Minnesota had spent a whopping $3.9 million through mid-September in targeted races and on a general TV campaign. The business-backed Northstar Leadership Fund had $1.3 million available for the final push and the conservative Freedom Club State PAC had already spent $450,000, mostly against Democrats they're targeting.

Candidates themselves typically get dwarfed in the campaign spending. Many agree to limit their fundraising in exchange for public subsidies, but that means they also have less control about the messages and negative ads run in their areas.

The entities will file one more report -- on Oct. 24 -- before the Nov. 8 election. After that, they must only report large donations within 24 hours of receiving them but can keep their spending figures private until early next year.