Gramm Has Spent $4.7 Million on ’96 Bid, Data Shows

Texas Sen. Phil Gramm has already spent nearly $5 million on his bid for the 1996 Republican presidential nomination, a figure higher than the combined spending of his two chief rivals.

On the eve of the deadline for filing the first of four quarterly campaign finance reports with the Federal Election Commission, Gramm spokesman Gary Koops said Friday the documents will show that the Texan has raised about $8.7 million and spent about $4.7 million.

By contrast, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas, the front-runner in every early poll, raised $4.4 million in the first three months of 1995 and spent $1.9 million, according to campaign spending records he filed Friday with the FEC. Dole transferred more than $200,000 left from his last senatorial campaign to his presidential fund.

Former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander, meanwhile, who is portraying himself as a Washington outsider, raised $5.2 million in a 25-city fund-raising tour, and spent $2.2 million, the records show.

Candidates who have formally announced their campaigns and begun raising and spending money were required to file the first of four 1995 quarterly reports with the FEC by today. Nearly every campaign with anything to boast about did so early.

Alexander said his totals disprove worries that he would have difficulty raising cash. He also took a thinly veiled jab at Dole and Gramm, both of whom have added to their campaign coffers money from leftover Senate campaign accounts.

California Gov. Pete Wilson has not yet formally entered the race, and so did not have to submit fund-raising information to the commission. But Wilson aides generated some news when they said an old-fashioned, three-day phone bank operation in Sacramento earlier this week generated pledges worth $8.1 million.

Among other GOP candidates, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter was still finalizing his report late Friday. Preliminary figures indicate he raised just over $1 million and spent nearly $400,000 through March 31, leaving him with $623,000 at that point.

Meanwhile, conservative commentator and former White House aide Patrick J. Buchanan reported raising more than $945,000. He has already spent in excess of $669,000.