Illinois Senate Race: Duckworth out raises top rivals Kirk, Zopp

WASHINGTON – Democratic Illinois Senate hopeful Rep. Tammy Duckworth bested Sen. Mark Kirk R-Ill. and primary rivals Andrea Zopp and Napoleon Harris in fundraising for the last quarter of 2015.

Kirk and Duckworth are close in the cash-on-hand balance, with Kirk having a slight edge.

Kirk heads into a March Republican primary against little known Oswego software consultant Jim Marter.

Duckworth, a two-term House member; Zopp, an attorney and Harris a state senator, are competing in the March primary for the nomination to run against Kirk. Duckworth is the frontrunner.

Marter, making his first major run for office, jumped in the race last fall. He will be filing his first campaign report with the Federal Election Commission, his campaign said, declining to release early any topline numbers.

A Harris spokesman said the state senator raised about $1 million; it’s not known yet if any of that was a loan from the candidate.

Harris mostly self-funded his state senate bid, with loans he made to his campaign still on the books totaling $227,000 according to Illinois State Board of Elections records.

Here are the unofficial stats for the quarter ending Dec. 31, as provided by the campaigns. Official FEC reports will not be publically available until later this month.

KIRK

Raised: $1,031,542

Cash On Hand: $3,792,462

Raised cycle to date: $8,211,151

DUCKWORTH

Raised: $1.6 million

Cash-on-hand: $3.65 million on hand.

Raised cycle to date: $4.7 million

ZOPP

Raised: $314,089

Cash-on-hand: $714,063

Raised cycle to date: will be updating with this figure.