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SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams said Tuesday he has raised more than $500,000 for his run against Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, since declaring his candidacy in mid-October.
McAdams, a Democrat, also said his campaign has $469,000 in cash on hand at this point in the race for the 4th District seat in Congress that will be decided in November.
Ninety-five percent of the contributions came from individual donors, and 90 percent is from Utah, he said, with the median contribution at $50. The numbers will be reported to the Federal Election Commission later this month.
"It is extremely gratifying that so many grass-roots Utahns have offered their enthusiastic and generous support," McAdams said in a statement. "Folks here are tired of partisan gridlock and excited about being represented by someone with a proven record of bringing people together to get things done."
McAdams' campaign manager, Andrew Roberts, said the information was released before the federal filing for 2017 that's due Jan. 31 because "we just felt really good about that number and wanted to get it out there without delay."
Love on McAdams entering congressional race
Love says McAdams enters congressional race to advance career, not political agenda
Rep. Mia Love had sharp words for her new Democratic challenger, saying Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams is looking to advance his career, not a political agenda.Love's campaign manager, Dave Hansen, wasn't ready to offer details of her fundraising during the final quarter of 2017. She had nearly $311,000 on hand as of Sept. 30, 2017, her last filing with the FEC.
"She'll have a very good report, let me put it that way," Hansen said. "I'm not going to speculate on where she will be. … We'll release it on our schedule and not anyone else's."
The amount raised by McAdams, Hansen said, is "not really" a cause for concern.
"We expected he'd have a good quarter. It's his first one. There's a lot of low-hanging fruit out there for him to get," he said. "Would I prefer it to be a fifth of that? Of course. But we knew he would do well and he did."
