Lazio Rakes In Big Bucks

For the past two months, Republican Rick Lazio has been outpacing Hillary Rodham Clinton's fund-raising efforts at better than a 3-to-1 clip.

In a report for the Federal Election Commission, the Long Island congressman said Thursday he had raised $10.7 million during July and August, spent almost $6.7 million and still had more than $10.2 million on hand for his quest to win a Senate seat from New York.

The Clinton campaign said it raised $3.3 million during the period, spent $3.1 million and had $7.1 million on hand.

The reports detail only hard-money contributions, which are limited to $2,000 from each individual donor.

The Clinton campaign has also been aggressively raising unlimited soft-money contributions to the Democratic Party - money that can be used for ads attacking or boosting a candidate as long as those ads don't advocate voting one way or the other. A recent Hollywood Democratic fund-raiser brought about $1 million in such funds.

Lazio has shied away from softmoney fund-raising thus far, but that has not stopped anti-Clinton groups from doing such fund-raisers for his benefit.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the New York Senate race has become the most expensive in the nation, with $49.2 million raised by Clinton, Lazio and New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who withdrew from the race earlier this year. The figure does not include the new funds.

Prior to this year, the nation's most expensive Senate race, at $43.2 million, had been the 1994 California campaign in which Democratic incumbent Diane Feinstein defeated Republican Michael Huffington.