Rudnick Lagging Far Behind Creem In Fundraising Race

State Senator Cynthia Creem has amassed a considerable campaign war chest heading into next month's Democratic primary, raising twice as much as challenger Charles Rudnick. 

According to finance documents released by both campaigns late last month, Rudnick raised a total of $26,540 in the first six months of 2010, much of it from out-of-state donors. Of the 160 individual contributions Rudnick received, 48 came from outside Massachusetts.

The documents also showed Rudnick propped up his campaign with an additional $15,000 of his own money in late May.

Creem, on the other hand, has raised $50,140 so far this year, with a total of 411 individual donations. All but four came from inside Massachusetts, though one of those – a $200 donation from Connecticut developer Justin Krebs – was returned by the campaign.

Brookline residents and organizations contributed 130 indidvidual donations to the Creem campaign, but just 12 to Rudnick.

Creem voluntarily released her campaign finance documents on July 22, well ahead of the filing deadline in early September. Rudnick's campaign initially said it wasn't prepared to release its financial data, but followed suit late last week.

Rudnick had made a major visibility push in recent days, sending campaign workers into all 52 precincts in the district last week. Creem has also hit the campaign trail in Brookline, recently greeting commuters at the Coolidge Corner T Stop with former Gov. Michael Dukakis.

The two candidates will appear together at a candidate's night hosted by the Brookline Democratic Town Committee at Town Hall on Aug. 10 and have scheduled several other debates outside of Brookline. They'll face off in the Democratic primary in September.

The Republican Party has not fielded a candidate for the seat.