The incumbents in local congressional races are beating the pants off their challengers in fundraising, and their campaign coffers are being fattened largely with contributions from corporate and special interest political groups.

In Utah's 3rd District, U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon raised $1.1 million through Sept. 30, far outpacing Democratic challenger Christian Burridge's $39,500 total, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

In the 2nd District, which includes a slice of Utah County, U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, gathered $1.6 million. That's more than twice as much as challenger LaVar Christensen, a Republican state legislator who's raised $697,000 -- with most of that, $490,000, coming from a loan to himself.

Though he's ahead in the money race overall, Cannon's campaign has been relatively quiet on the fundraising and spending fronts since he defeated a primary challenger in June. From July through September, FEC reports show him raising just less than $152,000 and spending only $225,000.

Cannon faced a wealthy challenger in the primary, but he can take it easy now because Burridge doesn't have enough money to mount an effective challenge, said Quin Monson, a political science professor at Brigham Young University.

"He's going to be an invisible challenger," Monson said of Burridge. "There's no way, without an advertising presence, to be competitive.

"That's why Chris Cannon can stop raising money."

Cannon's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Burridge said his lean campaign can still be effective and that some additional money to fund advertising in the final weeks should be arriving soon. His campaign also found someone who volunteered to make campaign commercials, which have been distributed on www.youtube.com.

"What we've done is adapted, and we've been able to do some stuff on the cheap that normally would've cost more," Burridge said. "You can do a lot of things now -- just because technology's different -- for a fraction of the cost."

Cannon and Matheson have raised more than half their money from political action committees. Of Cannon's total, $680,400 came from PACs. Matheson gathered $1 million from PACs. Lists of their donors are available in the FEC's online database at www.fec.gov.

That's the advantage of incumbency, said Monson: "That's easy money." For someone like Matheson, who knows he'll be challenged every election, it provides a foundation for running an aggressive campaign.

Burridge had a $3,500 PAC donation, and Christensen got $21,500 from PACs.

Money raised through Sept. 30

Contributions Spent Cash on Hand Debt

U.S. Congress, District 2

Jim Matheson, D*

$1.6 million $625,000 $1.1 million $0

LaVar Christensen, R

$697,000 $398,000 $298,300 $571,000

U.S. Congress, District 3

Chris Cannon, R*

$1.1 million $1 million $61,792 $257,900

Christian Burridge, D $39,500 $34,800 $4,700 $22,750

Jim Noorlander, C $19,715 $17,063 $2,652 $598

* Incumbent

Source: Federal Election Commission

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D1.