Buttigieg Campaign Spending Tops $34 Million in Fourth Quarter

(Bloomberg) -- Pete Buttigieg’s campaign bolstered outlays to $34 million in the final months of 2019, spending about $11 million more than it raised, according to its latest filing to the Federal Election Commission.

Advertising was the campaign’s biggest expenditure in the period as the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana spent $15.1 million on television and digital buys. Buttigieg has spent $27.5 million so far on political ads, according to Advertising Analytics. He trails only Senator Bernie Sanders, who’s spent $30.9 million, among Democratic candidates who aren’t relying on their personal fortunes to finance their campaigns.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has spent $301 million on ads, and fellow billionaire Tom Steyer has spent $145 million. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.

Buttigieg, who’s polling third in Iowa according to the RealClearPolitics average, has spent $10 million on media there, hoping for a strong finish in the state’s caucuses on Feb. 3. He’s spent $3.1 million in New Hampshire, where RealClearPolitics also has him in third.

The campaign’s fundraising tilted toward bigger contributors in the fourth quarter, with small-dollar donors -- those giving $200 or less -- accounting for $9.6 million, or 39% of his total haul. Buttigieg ended the year with $14.5 million cash on hand.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Allison in Washington DC at ballison14@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, John Harney, Shamim Adam

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