Lynch raises $1M for US Senate bid

BOSTON (AP) — U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch's raised $1.5 million since entering the race in late January for John Kerry's former U.S. Senate seat, his campaign announced on Monday.

Lynch spent more than $1.7 million in the 70-day period through April 10, the campaign said. When combined with the nearly $745,000 left over from his last House race, the new money raised left the Democrat from South Boston with more than $500,000 cash on hand for the final weeks leading up to the April 30 primary.

Lynch's Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, has not yet publicly released his campaign fundraising totals. But Markey started the race with a considerable financial advantage over Lynch, having ended 2012 with about $3.1 million in the bank.

"We got into this race knowing we would be outraised and outspent," Lynch said in a statement. "But we also knew that our support wouldn't come from Washington or California — it would come from right here in Massachusetts."

The campaign said 93 percent of the 3,304 individual donors to Lynch's campaign live in Massachusetts and 45 percent of those who donated gave $100 or less.

Markey's campaign has benefited from the lion's share of the more than $1.25 million in expenditures from outside groups that are not counted in the candidates' fundraising totals.

Three Republicans, former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan, state Rep. Daniel Winslow and businessman Gabriel Gomez, are seeking the GOP nomination in the April 30 primary. The special election will be held on June 25.

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