Leader: Keyes has made millions in Illinois

The Illinois Leader reports on the third quarter Federal Election Commission (FEC) report:

Illinois Republican U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes raised more than $1.3 million dollars in the third quarter and left himself with more than $1.1 million cash on hand going into the campaign’s final stretch, accorrding [sic] to the FEC report they filed today.

His opponent and the overwhelming favorite in the race, Democrat State Senator Barack Obama raised nearly four times the amount of money that Keyes did during the same period but he spent even more leaving him with slightly more than $1.7 million cash on hand.

Obama raised more than $4.2 million in the third quarter but spent $5,824,676.44 during this same period leaving him with a relatively slim resource advantage over Keyes. Obama has raised a whopping $14,319,979.57 in the campaign to date.

So Obama is spending the money he is raising for the campaign on the campaign, on what exactly is Keyes spending the money he has raised?

The story also implies coordination between the Keyes campaign and the anti-Obama 527, Empower Illinois:

An additional late resource for the Keyes campaign has been the work of a new 527 committee called “Empower Illinois” which this week began running targeted television and radio ads critical of Obama.

Far be it from me to give tips on dirty tricks to the Republican party, but I always thought that secrecy was part of underhandedness.