Keep an eye on the Democrat candidates for Attorney General, especially Steve Bullock and Mike Wheat.  Many consider Wheat the frontrunner on account of his close ties to the resource-rich trial lawyers.  However, Bullock has outraised Wheat during each of the first two finance periods.  Wheat has the ability to put more personal dollars into his race (he's already chipped in $30k), but Bullock may be able to neutralize that advantage if he can keep up his fundraising pace.

The X factor in this race may be Gov. Schweitzer.  Schweitzer worked closely with Wheat during the latter's days in the Montana Senate, but Bullock has close ties to Schweizer as well, serving as his campaign lawyer in 2004.  These days, the Democratic Party seems to go wherever Schweitzer wills it, and we'll see if the Gov is going to throw his weight behind one of the AG contenders. 

Gov. Schweitzer is doing more than racking up frequent flyer miles on his numerous junkets around the country, he's also raking in some serious campaign cash from the deep pockets on the East and West coasts.

According to our analysis of recently released campaign finance reports, an amazing 32% of Schweitzer's $600,489 raised has come from out-of-state, or $193,000.  This appears to be a new record for any Montana governor.

Leading the pack is New York state, where Schweitzer is averaging $566 per donor, well above the $140 average the campaign is claiming for overall fundraising.  Schweitzer has raised $72,000 from New York so far, which is a new record for a Montana governor.

Hollywood has some ground to make up if they're going to make a good showing for their favorite governor.  The Golden State has contributed a measly $29,000, with a per-contributor average of just above $300.  The stinginess of Hollywood can be appalling sometimes.  Still, we have not been able to find a Montana governor who has raised more money out of California, so rack up one more record for BS.

The most recent political party campaign finance reports were released last week, and the Montana Democratic Party has a slight lead over their counterparts.  However, for the most recent period, the MT GOP raised over 3 times as much as the MDP - the MT GOP raised $27,460 over the period (May 1 - May 31), compared to a paltry $7,464 for the MDP.

The MT GOP reported an ending cash on hand of $115k, but with no debt.  The Democrats reported a COH of $179k, but with $44k in debt, or $134k in cash after debt.

Another interesting part of the report is that the MT GOP is raising a lot more money from individual donors.  As of May 31, the MT GOP had raised $129k from individuals, compared with only $75k from individuals for the MDP.  The reverse was true for PAC contributions - the MDP has raised $48k from PACs, compared with only $3k in PAC contributions for the MT GOP.  MDP has also received $14k from its national party committees; the MT GOP has received no transfers.

The two parties seem to be following a trend from the previous election cycle where the MT GOP is dependent on in-state, small-contribution donors and the MDP is dependent on PAC contributions and transfers from its national party affiliates and from out-of-state, large-contribution donors.  To put it in perspective, in 2004, the MDP raised $691k from only 458 donors, compared with the MT GOP raising $650k from 7,324 donors.