Oct 24, 2008 - 04:05:14 CDT
Both candidates for North Dakota's insurance commissioner raised almost the same amount of money since the beginning of the year, according to their campaign finance reports filed this week.Democrat Jasper Schneider and Republican Adam Hamm both took in about $143,000 since the beginning of the year, with Schneider raising slightly more. Schneider got $143,994. Hamm raised $143,018.
Schneider, a House representative from Fargo, also raised $27,637 in late 2007 after announcing his candidacy for insurance commissioner in November, bringing his total contributions to more than $170,000.
Hamm, who was appointed insurance commissioner by Gov. John Hoeven in October 2007, did not start raising money until 2008.
The reporting period for the reports ended Oct. 15 when Schneider had $19,255 of cash on hand with Hamm holding onto $32,457. Both candidates have continued to raise money since.
About $40,000 of Schneider's money came from PACs, including $27,000 from the leadership PACs of North Dakota's congressional delegation in Washington, D.C. Another $30,000 comes from the Democratic-NPL party.
Hamm's largest donation is $5,000, which came from a Montana business owner who is the brother of Hamm's former boss at a Fargo law firm. Hamm also took $9,750 in PAC money and another $4,000 from Hoeven.
Neither candidate had to detail campaign donations of $200 or under, according to North Dakota law. Schneider took in $45,039 of those donations to Hamm's $34,277.
Other dollars
Hoeven outraised his Democratic-NPL opponent Sen. Tim Mathern by more than three-to-one, according to their campaign finance reports filed Thursday.
Hoeven took in $655,776 as of Oct. 15 while Mathern raised $208,988.
Hoeven's largest donation is $25,500, which came from his father, Jack Hoeven, president of First Western Bank.
Mathern's largest donors are North Dakota's Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, whose leadership PACs both gave Mathern $15,000.
Other races where both candidates' campaign finances were available as of press time Thursday included Department of Public Instruction candidate Wayne Sanstead and Max Laird, as well as state auditor candidates Robert Peterson and Daryl Splichal.
Sanstead, who has the support of the Democrats, took in $18,465, while his independent opponent, Laird, raised $16,045.
Republican auditor incumbent Peterson took in $4,134 while his Democratic opponent, Splichal, raised $14,028.
N.D. voting
The number of North Dakotans casting an early vote continues to rise, according to numbers reported by Secretary of State Al Jaeger on Thursday.
Since last week, the number of people who have cast a ballot has nearly doubled from about 19,200 to 36,600 on Thursday.
About half of the 67,075 ballots distributed to vote-by-mail counties and absentee voters have been turned in as of Thursday, totaling 33,836.
As of noon on Thursday, 2,769 North Dakotans had voted early at their local precinct.
Power calls
North Dakotans contacting the Public Service Commission about their power bills has more than doubled when compared to last year, according to numbers released by the commission on Wednesday.
From September 2007 to August 2008, 200 people contacted the PSC inquiring about a raise in their energy costs, which the commission attributed to a temporary rate increase by Otter Tail Power Co. earlier this year.
A planned outage at one of the power company's plants lasted longer than expected, forcing Otter Tail to purchase power on the open market, according to the PSC report.
Between 2006 and 2007, 88 people called about their power bills.
Of the 808 total contacts the PSC received this year, only 246 were about telecommunications. That's down from 507 the previous year.
The commission attributed the decrease in contacts regarding phone companies to fewer questions about billing and more satisfaction with cell phone companies.
(Reach reporter Brian Duggan at 223-8482 or brian.duggan.)@bismarcktribune.com
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