Campaign fundraising: Gov. Walker outpacing Burke by more than two times

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- In the race for governor, the polls may be tied. But the fundraising is not. Both the Scott Walker and Mary Burke campaigns have released their fundraising totals -- and Gov. Walker is winning by a two-to-one margin.

The candidates released their fundraising totals for the past six months -- with Gov. Walker showing a total of $8.2 million raised compared to Burke's $3.6 million.

UW-Milwaukee Professor of Governmental Affairs Mordecai Lee studies the influence of money on the political process. He says the amount of money being raised dwarfs the amounts of the recent past. For example, when Tommy Thompson was running, $1 million for an entire campaign seemed like a huge amount.

The specific reports won't be available for about two weeks, but they could indicate public labor unions, which have been limited by Act 10, are not giving as much.

"This is what Wisconsin campaign finance is like in a post Act 10 world.  Because Act 10, besides what it did substantively, some people liked it, some people disliked it, what it did was it knocked out a major source of money for democratic candidates," said Lee.

In the last six months, Burke did not use any of her own money, but she had donated $400,000 of her personal wealth to her campaign early on.

Prof. Lee says the pre-Act 10 conventional wisdom held the candidate who best mobilized his or her base would win. But with polls showing a tied race, there's no more base to mobilize -- and that means the entire focus is on a small amount of undecided voters.

"That's only about five or six percent of the electorate. But amazingly, all the money that's now being raised is to reach those five or six percent, those last few thousands of people who are going to decide who gets elected," said Lee.

The general election is November 4th. But Burke faces an opponent in the primary on August 12th. He is State Rep. Brett Hulsey, who has not yet released his campaign finance report.

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FOX6 News also recently followed the money trail -- to find out how politically-influential organizations hide their donors using so-called "dark money." CLICK HERE to view that story.