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A Hoke County Republican who entered the 8th District race less than a month ago - and jump-started his campaign with $300,000 of his own money - now has a bigger war chest than Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell.
Tim D'Annunzio of Raeford, a conservative who ran his own TV ads against Barack Obama last year, has more than $260,000 in his campaign account, according to reports filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission. Kissell has $245,000.
Another Republican in the 2010 race, Lou Huddleston of Fayetteville, has $102,000 according to the reports. The 8th District runs from Charlotte to Fayetteville.
D'Annunzio, a former member of the Army's Golden Knights parachute team, owns what's billed as the largest "vertical wind tunnel" in the world for indoor skydiving. A former defense contractor, he has run and lost races for mayor of Raeford and Hoke County commissioner.
He calls himself "a conservative first and then a Republican."
"The taste in the Republican Party right now is for a strict conservative rather than somebody who will moderate his conservative view," said D'Annunzio, 51.
Huddleston is the son of a paratrooper. A 31-year Army veteran himself, he was born at Fort Bragg and retired as a colonel in 2003 after a tour in Afghanistan. An independent consultant to the defense industry and on national security issues, he has loaned his campaign $45,000.
Huddleston announced in August, the same week former GOP Rep. Robin Hayes took himself out of the running for 2010, clearing the way for other Republicans.
"The majority of the money I've had donated comes from all around the district," Huddleston said Friday. "I don't know that North Carolinians will buy into people buying a seat."
Kissell has raised nearly $407,000 this year, more than all but one of North Carolina's congressional representatives. He also has spent $173,000, including $52,000 on fundraising consultants, according to CQMoneyLine.
Three of every four dollars Kissell raised has come from political action committees representing business and labor groups as well as lawmakers such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Spokeswoman Leanne Powell said "In these tough economic times ... Kissell is grateful for the support he's been given."
D'Annunzio, who calls Kissell an "ultra-liberal," is no stranger to hard-hitting campaigns.
Last year he said he spent $20,000 on anti-Obama ads. Some ran online. At least one ran on TV. The ads dealt with taxes, abortion, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and 1960s radical Bill Ayers.
Records show that in 2004 D'Annunzio's former company, Paraclete Armor & Equipment, gave $2,000 to the anti-John Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
