Sandoval cuts back on fundraising

After the close of the candidate filing earlier this year produced no strong opponent, Gov. Brian Sandoval cut back fundraising efforts dramatically in the period from January through May.

Where he started the campaign season with just more than $3 million in contributions, the latest report filed Tuesday of this week added just $320,000 to the pot.

There are a total of 14 candidates in the race for governor, five of them Republican including Sandoval. But there are no big name challengers in either of the major parties.

Since January, Sandoval spent more than double what he raised — a total of $795,703.

Of that, $5,000 went to Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison’s campaign fund and the same amount to State Sen. Ben Kieckhefer’s re-election fund. He is expected to use his war chest to help out a number of Republican candidates this election season.

Hutchison, who Sandoval has endorsed to succeed the term-limited Brian Krolicki, reported raising $403,417 this reporting period. That is on top of the $857,235 he reported having on hand in January.

Hutchison reported spending a total of $920,554 as of May 20.

His primary opponent, former State Senator Sue Lowden, reported raising $116,889 since January when she had $228,275 in contributions. Lowden has spent $249,018 as of this reporting period.

Their democratic opponent Assemblywoman Lucy Flores started the year with $79,954 in contributions. Since January, she has added $315,598 to the pot while reporting expenses of just $83,641.