Beshear stretches spending lead over Cameron in Kentucky governor race. Here's a look

The reelection campaign of Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear stretched out its fundraising and spending advantage over Republican challenger Daniel Cameron in the past month, raising an additional $1.5 million from donors.

Wednesday was the deadline for candidates and political committees to file their second-to-last reports with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance before the Nov. 7 general election, accounting for their contributions and expenditures in the 30 days preceding last Saturday.

Beshear's campaign has now raised more than $7 million since the May primary, in addition to transferring $6.2 million left unspent from his primary account and a $3 million transfer from the Kentucky Democratic Party in September.

The campaign of the incumbent governor reported spending an additional $3.8 million over the past month, bringing its total spent through the general election to $14.5 million — six times the amount Cameron's campaign has reported spending since the primary.

While Beshear's campaign has dominated Cameron's when it comes to fundraising and spending on TV ads since the primary, the influence of outside PACs helping each candidate has narrowed that gap. Those outside PACs have purchased and reserved more than $30 million of air time for ads in Kentucky since the primary, with pro-Cameron groups having a slight numbers edge over those supporting Beshear.

Cameron's campaign reported raising an additional $528,581 and spending $960,259 over the past month, building on the $2.3 million he reported raising in the previous general election report, along with a $450,000 transfer from the Republican Party of Kentucky.

Beshear ended the reporting period with $1.9 million cash on hand left, while Cameron reported just shy of $1 million.

Touting their latest fundraising report in a press release, Beshear campaign manager Eric Hyers stated that it "shows sky-high enthusiasm for the governor that is reflected on the ground, in polling and in the millions raised to support our campaign. As we head into the final weeks, we will keep out-raising and out-working Daniel Cameron so that Kentuckians continue to have a governor who cares about them.”

In a statement, Cameron campaign spokeswoman Courtney Norris said the Republican "has the resources to win on November 7."

"Andy Beshear is bankrolled by Joe Biden," Norris said in an email. "We are running an aggressive campaign around the state. This fall, Kentuckians will retire the Beshear family once and for all."

The Cameron campaign's reference to Biden is another effort to highlight the $250,000 the Kentucky Democratic Party received in August from the Biden Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee between the president's campaign, the state party and the Democratic National Committee. The Kentucky Democratic Party transferred $3 million to Beshear's campaign two weeks later.

Cameron picked up a larger share of his contributions from Kentuckians than Beshear in the past month, as 85% of the $467,361 he received in individual itemized donation came from people with a Kentucky address. Of the $1.2 million Beshear received from itemized individuals, 75% where from people living in Kentucky.

The average size of Beshear's 3,862 individual itemized contributions over the past month was $328, smaller than the $418 average of Cameron's 1,118 contributions.

PACs make up most of $42 million ad spending

According to ad tracking firm Medium Buying, there has already been $42 million worth of TV and radio air time purchased or reserved by campaigns and political committees during the general election — nearly double what was spent in all of Kentucky's last gubernatorial election in 2019.

Roughly a quarter of that ad spending has come from the candidates' campaigns — and mostly from Beshear. The Democrat's campaign has already directed more than $10 million on ad time, which is more than six times that of Cameron's $1.6 million.

Cameron has been able to narrow that TV ad spending gap with the help of outside groups, as supportive PACs and party committees have kicked in $16 million on ads during the general election, just more than the $14 million spent by a PAC run by the Democratic Governors Association.

Leading the charge in support of Cameron has been the Republican Governors Association, which has completely bankrolled two PACs that have spent just shy of $9 million on ads hitting Beshear, nearly all from Kentucky Values.

Bluegrass Freedom Action — a PAC that spent $3 million in the GOP primary to help boost Cameron to his decisive victory — has purchased $1.6 million of TV ads going after Beshear in the general election, in addition to digital ads.

The PAC raised an additional $733,000 over the past month, with $530,000 of that coming from the American Policy Coalition, a dark money 501(c)4 nonprofit that is able to shield its donors. Bluegrass Freedom Action had previously received $3.75 from the Concord Fund, another conservative dark money group.

A trio of outside PACs largely bankrolled by Pennsylvania billionaire Jeff Yass have also spent nearly $6 million on TV ads supporting Cameron, with newcomer Club for Growth Action purchasing $1.6 million of air time in the past month. Protect Freedom PAC and School Freedom Fund had also previously combined for more than $4 million of ad spending.

Yass, the owner of Philadelphia-based global investment and trading firm Susquehanna International Group, gave $3 million to Protect Freedom and $10 million to Club for Growth Action in June, while he has nearly entirely bankrolled School Freedom Fund over the past two years with $15 million of contributions.

As for outside PAC support for Beshear, that has mostly come from Defending Bluegrass Values, a PAC led and mostly funded by the DGA.

Defending Bluegrass Values reported raising another $7.9 million over the past month — now more than $12 million since the primary — with $6.7 million of that coming from the DGA. An additional $1.2 million in contributions came from various unions, including $500,000 from the National Education Association, the national teachers union that had given another $500,000 to the PAC earlier in the summer.

Unions remain one of the biggest funders of Beshear and the PACs supporting his reelection, with their most recent contributions pushing the total they have given to the DGA and other PACs supporting Beshear past $4 million — nearly half of which have come from local and national teacher unions.

Other PACs supporting Beshear and Cameron have reported raising and spending smaller amounts to help each candidate — not enough to put ads on TV, but helping with mailers, digital advertising and field organizing.

Planned Parenthood Action Kentucky reported spending $175,000 over the past month on digital advertising hitting Cameron over his abortion-related policies, with the national PAC of the organization contributing $200,000 to the state PAC in the previous reporting period.

Kentucky Family Values — also bankrolled by unions — also reported spending $350,000 in the previous reporting period on field organizing services in support of Beshear, but the PAC reported raising and spending virtually nothing in the past month.

On the Republican side, Cameron is getting extra support from Commonwealth Policy PAC, which has been mostly funded by the socially conservative Commonwealth Policy Center. The PAC has now reported spending $74,000 on mailers and door hangers supporting Cameron, with more than $100,000 left to spend in the last 30 days of the campaign.

Reach reporter Joe Sonka at jsonka@courierjournal.com and follow him on Twitter at @joesonka.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Beshear stretches money lead over Cameron in Kentucky governor race