1410 WIZM

There's some kind of money floating around in local legislative races.  The last campaign finance reports before next week's election have been filed. They show the state senate race between democrat Kathleen Vinehout and Republican Ed Thompson especially to be a big money affair. Thompson has outraised the incumbent Vinehout by a wide margin, collecting just shy of 160 thousand dollars this year for the race, and spending every dime of it. Thompson's left with about 12 grand in the bank Vinehout has spent about 125 thousand this year to get re-elected and has about 19 thousand left in the bank. Both candidates have spent the bulk of their money in the last couple of months.

Nick Charles doesn't have much to show for his fundraising efforts. The Republican challenger in Wisconsin's 95th assembly race, in his last report, shows just several hundred dollars in donations and then a big loan to himself to keep the wheels on the campaign wagon. Charles tells us he got a signature loan from a bank for $20 thousand to help him pay for the billboard space he's bought up in La Crosse. But that doesn't show up on his last campaign finance filing. Meanwhile, opponent Jennifer Shilling has been doing steady fundraising throughout the year and seems to have little concern about losing her seat; she's sitting on $60 thousand in her campaign account.