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Brizzi way out front in dash for dollars
10/21/2006
Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi has raised more than twice as much as Democrat Melina Kennedy in his re-election bid -- and has nearly $600,000 left to spend in the final days.
Both campaigns filed finance reports Friday with the Marion County clerk's office. In what has become the most expensive prosecutor's race in county history, the reports show mountains of cash raised in recent months as the campaigns bought time for their ads on television.
The reports listed contributions and spending since April 8, the last time reports were due. As of Oct. 13, the cut-off date, Kennedy had $195,192 in cash on hand. Brizzi had $483,761.
But since then, Brizzi has raised an additional $110,000, compared with $9,000 more for Kennedy, a former Indianapolis deputy mayor.
A poll conducted this week for WTHR (Channel 13) showed Brizzi with a strong lead over Kennedy, 51 percent to 35 percent. The poll of 600 likely voters in Marion County had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
"It's still not over, even given the magnitude of the poll," said Brian Vargus, a political science professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and a former political pollster. "There's good data that shows that people don't make up their minds until the last week of (an off-year) election."
Brizzi has maintained a financial advantage over Kennedy throughout the campaign. Since he took office in 2003, he has raised $2.4 million, according to his campaign.
Kennedy's campaign has raised $1.1 million -- more than both candidates combined in Brizzi's first race in 2002.
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