By The Associated Press

BATON ROUGE — Republicans challenging Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards couldn’t match the Democrat’s fundraising pace as they ready for final advertising blitzes ahead of the Oct. 12 election.

The Deep South’s only Democratic governor raised more than $1.6 million in the latest fundraising period through Sept. 2.

His Republican challengers significantly lagged. U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham brought in $761,000 from donors while businessman Eddie Rispone drew $147,000 in contributions.

But Rispone continued to pour his own money into the campaign, adding another $1.5 million to boost his total personal loans to $11.5 million.

For the final advertising stretch, Edwards reported $5.7 million in his campaign account, while Abraham had $1.4 million in the bank and Rispone had $6.3 million available.

Fundraising reports were filed Thursday night with the ethics administration office.

Six other Republican statewide officials are running for reelection on the ballot: Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, Attorney General Jeff Landry, Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, Treasurer John Schroder, Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain and Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon.

Nearly all of them are sitting on much larger war chests than their competitors for the final weeks of the campaign. Landry reported the largest amount in the bank, $1.9 million. His Democratic opponent Ike Jackson reported about $500 in his campaign account.