MD-Gov: Campaign finance reports covering the period of May 16 to June 10 are in, giving us one last look at each candidate's spending heading into next week's Democratic primary. Helpfully, the Baltimore Sun broke down how much each candidate spent on media buys during this time.
Attorney Jim Shea spent a hefty $900,000 on ads and had $565,000 left for the home stretch. However, recent polls have all found Shea with little support. Most surveys have found Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker and former NAACP head Ben Jealous locked in a tight contest, but Jealous is very much ahead in campaign spending. Jealous outspent him $550,000 to $385,000 on media during this time, and he had a $385,000 to $245,000 cash-on-hand edge.
State Sen. Richard Madaleno spent $185,000 on ads, but he had just $16,000 left for the homestretch. Krish Vignarajah, a former policy director to Michelle Obama, spent only $6,000 on media but had $500,000 left, and she says she's launched a late $290,000 ad buy. Finally, former State Department official Alec Ross and spent just $65,000, and he had $181,000 left.
Whomever emerges from the primary will be in for a very expensive general election with GOP Gov. Larry Hogan, who had $9.4 million in the bank.