The race for an open U.S. House seat in a mid-Michigan district anchored by Lansing continues to generate a lot of fundraising by the two major party candidates who are running and even more spending by outside groups determined to play a role in the outcome.
Already, at least $21 million has been spent in the race, with just under three weeks to go until the Nov. 5 general election in what is widely considered a toss-up district.
Republican former state Sen. Tom Barrett, of Charlotte, is making his second run in Michigan's 7th Congressional District, this time facing Democratic former state Sen. Curtis Hertel Jr., of East Lansing. Current U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, who defeated Barrett two years ago, is running instead for Michigan's open U.S. Senate seat.
Filings this week with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) appeared to show Hertel with a fundraising edge overall, having raised $2.3 million in the most recent reporting period, from July 18 to Sept. 30, and bringing his total for the campaign to $6.5 million. As of that date, he had spent about $4.3 million and had $2.2 million left in his account.
Barrett, meanwhile, raised $1.4 million in the July 18 to Sept. 30 period, bringing his total to around $4 million. As of Sept. 30, he had spent about $2.9 million and had $1.3 million left in his campaign account.
Together, the two candidates had spent about $7.2 million in the race, with about a month to go before the final balloting.
But as happened two years ago, independent spending not directly tied to the candidates' accounts or campaigns has poured into the district on their behalf. A Free Press look at processed and not-yet processed filings indicated that, as of Thursday, about $13.8 million had been spent in the 7th District race.
Barrett's supporters had the edge somewhat in that spending, accounting for about $7.5 million. Of that, by far the largest spender was the Washington-based Congressional Leadership Fund, which works to get Republicans elected to the House, spending some $4.6 million.
The National Republican Congressional Committee also put about $1.5 million into the race to support Barrett and target Hertel, and the conservative group Americans for Prosperity's political arm added some $745,000.
On Hertel's and the Democrat's side, about $6.3 million had been spent so far in the race, most of it coming from two sources. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had pumped some $2.8 million into the effort to get Hertel elected and House Majority PAC, a Washington committee committed to electing Democrats to the U.S. House, which had spent about $2.4 million to date.
This story was updated to add new information.
Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Outside spending ramping up in expensive Barrett-Hertel US House race
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