Kashkari fundraising way short of ‘tens of millions of dollars’ goal

Republican gubernatorial candidate Neel Kashkari predicted he would need “to raise tens of millions of dollars … to really compete with [Gov.] Jerry Brown” in the general election.

With the Nov. 4 election less than a month away, Kashkari has fallen far short of that goal, according to campaign finance documents filed with the state on Monday.

Kashkari has just under $680,000 in the bank, and is nearly $143,000 in debt, according to the reports. Overall, the first-time candidate raised $3.6 million and donated $2.1 million of his own money to his race. He has total expenditures of $4.9 million, nearly all of it before the June primary.

Brown reported a bank balance of more than $23 million in his candidacy account and no debt.

To make up for his financial shortcomings, Kashkari has taken to trying to generate attention in unusual ways, such as pretending to be a homeless person for a week in Fresno and handing out $25 gas cards to supporters who smashed tiny toy trains that symbolized the high-speed rail plan favored by Brown.

In a radio interview Monday on KSCO-AM in Santa Cruz, Kashkari indicated that there probably were more stunts in his future and said he was working “very, very hard” to raise money.

“We are running a very lean campaign, a very innovative campaign,” he told listeners. “We are doing a lot with limited resources. I’m not done. I’ve got a lot of tricks up my sleeve.”

Times staff writer Michael Finnegan contributed to this report.