MIDDLETON (AP) - Democrat Mary Burke disclosed Monday that she has contributed $5 million of her own money to the race to deny Republican Gov. Scott Walker a second term, saying that was the amount needed to spread the message in her first statewide campaign.
Walker and Burke are knotted in a tight race with the election just eight days away. Both were campaigning across the state on Monday, trying to sway the few remaining undecided voters, meeting with campaign workers, and touring farms and businesses.
The most recent Marquette University Law School poll released Oct. 15 showed them dead even at 47 percent each, with just 3 percent of voters undecided. A final poll is planned for Wednesday.
Both Walker and Burke reported their latest fundraising totals for the roughly three-month period that ended Oct. 20. Walker raised nearly $10.4 million while Burke brought in about $10.2 million. Nearly half of that, about $4.6 million, came from Burke's own personal wealth. She previously gave $430,000.
Burke's father started Trek Bicycles in the 1970s, she worked there as an executive, and owns stock in the company. She's also a former state Commerce Department secretary but is running her first statewide campaign after being elected to the Madison school board in 2012.
Burke cast the lone "no" in a 6-1 vote approving the district's budget Monday night. The budget will result in an about 4 percent increase in homeowners' property taxes, an increase Burke said she could not support when taxpayers are already being squeezed, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.
President Barack Obama is expected to campaign with Burke in Milwaukee on Tuesday. That comes after former President Bill Clinton was in the state's largest city for Burke on Friday. Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was coming to Wisconsin on Friday to rally Walker backers.
Walker, speaking to reporters after a Middleton campaign stop at Vortex Optics, said he was focused on winning over undecided voters, while the Obama and Clinton visits show that Burke is more focused on driving up turnout among Democrats.
He accused Burke of being the "candidate of Washington-based special interests." National union leaders at the National Education Association and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees have said that defeating Walker is a top priority.
"They don't like the fact that we took the power out of their hands, the Washington-based special interests, in the last few years, and put it firmly in the hands of Wisconsin taxpayers," Walker said.
Walker has raised just over $25 million since July 1, 2013, compared with about $15 million Burke brought in since getting into the race roughly a year ago. Burke said Walker's donations were driven by "deep-pocketed" special interests, mostly from out of state.
Both campaigns released only partial numbers from their latest campaign finance reports, which cover July 29 through Oct. 20. The full reports, showing individual donations, had to be filed by midnight.
Separate filings show that Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson gave the state Republican Party $650,000 on Thursday and the same day the party gave Walker more than $450,000. That was allowed under a court ruling that determined the state's limit on political action committee donations was unconstitutional.
Walker and Burke are knotted in a tight race with the election just eight days away. Both were campaigning across the state on Monday, trying to sway the few remaining undecided voters, meeting with campaign workers, and touring farms and businesses.
The most recent Marquette University Law School poll released Oct. 15 showed them dead even at 47 percent each, with just 3 percent of voters undecided. A final poll is planned for Wednesday.
Both Walker and Burke reported their latest fundraising totals for the roughly three-month period that ended Oct. 20. Walker raised nearly $10.4 million while Burke brought in about $10.2 million. Nearly half of that, about $4.6 million, came from Burke's own personal wealth. She previously gave $430,000.
Burke's father started Trek Bicycles in the 1970s, she worked there as an executive, and owns stock in the company. She's also a former state Commerce Department secretary but is running her first statewide campaign after being elected to the Madison school board in 2012.
Burke cast the lone "no" in a 6-1 vote approving the district's budget Monday night. The budget will result in an about 4 percent increase in homeowners' property taxes, an increase Burke said she could not support when taxpayers are already being squeezed, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.
President Barack Obama is expected to campaign with Burke in Milwaukee on Tuesday. That comes after former President Bill Clinton was in the state's largest city for Burke on Friday. Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was coming to Wisconsin on Friday to rally Walker backers.
Walker, speaking to reporters after a Middleton campaign stop at Vortex Optics, said he was focused on winning over undecided voters, while the Obama and Clinton visits show that Burke is more focused on driving up turnout among Democrats.
He accused Burke of being the "candidate of Washington-based special interests." National union leaders at the National Education Association and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees have said that defeating Walker is a top priority.
"They don't like the fact that we took the power out of their hands, the Washington-based special interests, in the last few years, and put it firmly in the hands of Wisconsin taxpayers," Walker said.
Walker has raised just over $25 million since July 1, 2013, compared with about $15 million Burke brought in since getting into the race roughly a year ago. Burke said Walker's donations were driven by "deep-pocketed" special interests, mostly from out of state.
Both campaigns released only partial numbers from their latest campaign finance reports, which cover July 29 through Oct. 20. The full reports, showing individual donations, had to be filed by midnight.
Separate filings show that Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson gave the state Republican Party $650,000 on Thursday and the same day the party gave Walker more than $450,000. That was allowed under a court ruling that determined the state's limit on political action committee donations was unconstitutional.