Republican Allen Alley waited until the last minute to enter the Oregon governor's race. But he isn't wasting any time raising money.
In the first four days since announcing his campaign, Alley picked up more than $136,000 in cash contributions. That reflects on the fact that while Alley has never held elected office, he's run statewide campaigns twice before and has a built-in donor base.
He put his name in the hat for the Republican nomination for governor just ten weeks before the May 17 primary.
His chief rival, Salem doctor Bud Pierce, has raised more than $1.1 million since entering the race last year. But nearly 75 percent of that has come from Pierce and his wife.
Incumbent Democrat Kate Brown has been a prodigious fundraiser herself. She has more than $1 million in campaign cash. None of her primary opponents has raised any significant amount of money.
Brown has raised more than $500,000 since the beginning of 2016. Like Alley, she didn't formally enter the gubernatorial race until just before the March 8 filing deadline. But Brown had been telling donors and reporters for months that she planned to enter the race to serve the remaining two years of John Kitzhaber's term.
Brown became governor in February 2015 when Kitzhaber resigned amid an ethics investigation.