With more than one month until the Nov. 7 general election, Gov. Linda Lingle already has raised $750,000 more in campaign donations than she did for her record-breaking initial victory four years ago.

And the money continues to roll in. Hawai'i's first Republican governor since 1962 is scheduled to hold two fundraisers today, on Maui and O'ahu, and shows no sign of assuming an easy cruise to re-election.

Lingle has raised $5.7 million in contributions since 2002, with interest and other income bringing the campaign's total receipts to a formidable $6.2 million, according to reports filed with the state Campaign Spending Commission in mid-September.

Her Democratic challenger, Randall Iwase, had raised $175,000 by then, and loaned his campaign $60,000 more.

Iwase had just $33,000 on hand shortly before the Sept. 23 primary election, while Lingle had $2.4 million left.

Though Lingle is widely seen as the likely winner next month, campaign spokesman Lenny Klompus said nothing is being taken for granted. The campaign has set fundraising goals and intends to spend virtually all the money it raises, he said.

"There's a campaign budget that was put together, and we're on target to meet that budget," he said. "So therefore, by definition, at the end we should come out right on target as to what we wanted to raise, and how we were going to spend it."

If Lingle does use all she collects, she will easily shatter the record she set in 2002 when she spent more than $5.4 million on her victory over Democratic former Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono.

PRICEY EVENTS

Tickets for today's Maui fundraiser range from $150 for lunch at the Dunes at Maui Lani Golf Course to $1,000 for a private reception with Lingle. The O'ahu event, at the Hawai'i Convention Center, will cost $250 for dinner or $3,000 for a private reception.

Ira Rohter, a University of Hawai'i political science professor, said it's hard to see why Lingle would need more money, given that she is a popular incumbent who faces limited opposition.

"What's the point of raising more? It seems ridiculous to spend extravagant amounts of money on this race," said Rohter, board president of the Hawai'i Clean Elections political watchdog group.

Even if Iwase were to suddenly raise a massive amount of cash, he would be hard-pressed to create a sweeping tide of popularity, or to use it to attack Lingle convincingly, Rohter said.

He noted that although Iwase has sought to characterize Lingle as ineffective, she can deflect such criticism by saying she inherited problems from decades of Democratic rule and has been hamstrung by a Democrat-dominated Legislature.

Rohter noted that there has been widespread speculation that Lingle may run for the U.S. Senate at some point, and said her image-building in this race could help prepare her for such a move.

Klompus said Lingle is focused solely on her re-election campaign and is not immediately considering other offices. He said he did not believe that money raised for the governor's race could legally be used for a federal campaign.

Lingle learned the hard way that scrimping on campaign expenses can be more costly in the long run.

Advertising for her 1998 campaign faded shortly before that general election, which she lost to Democrat Ben Cayetano by a slim margin of 5,254 votes.

Cayetano spent a then-record $4.85 million on the race, and finished with $175,000 in the bank; Lingle spent less than $3.2 million, and had $470,000 left over — leading to speculation that she might have won if she had gone for broke.

The $5.4 million Lingle spent on her 2002 victory over Hirono helped Lingle win by 17,362 votes. Hirono spent $2.3 million on her campaign.

LEFTOVER MONEY

Lingle's campaign has not considered what to do with any money that may remain after this election, Klompus said.

Those options are sharply limited by law, according to Campaign Spending Commission director Barbara Wong. In general, money left over from a statewide race can be returned to contributors, or the candidate can donate up to $6,000 in total to charitable organizations, Wong said.

Candidates can't give their excess money to other politicians, but can purchase up to two tickets to another candidate's fundraising event, as long as the cost of the tickets is the same as it would be for other supporters, Wong said. Leftover money can also be donated to the Hawai'i Election Campaign Fund to support public funding of elections, she said.

But Wong said it is not clear how much money candidates can donate to the Hawai'i branch of a political party. The commission had ruled in 2003 that candidates could give up to $25,000 in a two-year period, but could not earmark it to support a particular candidate.

Wong said that limit is no longer clear, but declined to say why. She said she is researching the issue, however. Wong could not immediately say what limits apply to a candidate's donations to a party's national committee.

Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com.