Shoffner crushes Cotton in 3Q fundraising

For the second time in as many reports, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Hallie Shoffner has outraised her opponent, Sen. Tom Cotton. 

“Outraised” is a bit of an understatement, in fact. Unlike the slim margin she held in second-quarter money, Shoffner’s third-quarter fundraising haul was nearly triple what Cotton reported bringing in. 

According to her Federal Election Commission filings, Shoffner raised just over $1.4 million between July 1 and September 30. Cotton raised just under $500,000 in the same period. Jeff Wadlin, the Libertarian candidate in the race, reported nearly $51,000 in receipts.

Shoffner’s impressive fundraising came at the same time that Cotton drastically ramped up his spending to combat Shoffner’s momentum in some August polls. In the third quarter, Cotton reported spending $3.8 million, compared to Shoffner’s $851,000 in expenditures. Wadlin spent just over $48,000.

The increased spending — bolstered by millions in outside PAC spending that’s funding ads and push polls — seems to have worked for Cotton so far. A Talk Business/Hendrix College poll released last week showed Cotton with a nine-point lead over Shoffner among likely voters.

Don’t expect to see much of a slowdown in spending between now and Election Day, either. Shoffner ended the third quarter with about $1.4 million cash on hand, while Cotton reported more than four times that amount with $6.8 million available. Wadlin was sitting on about $11,000 going into the final month of the race.