The Republican Governors Association has put another $610,020 into its campaign to unseat first-term Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, raising its total spending in Connecticut above $2.1 million for 2014, according to a filing early Saturday with the State Elections Enforcement Commission.
By comparison, the RGA spent $1.6 million on the entire campaign in 2010, when Malloy narrowly won an open seat, ending 16 years of GOP rule by M. Jodi Rell and John G. Rowland.
The Republican group’s vehicle for spending this year is Grow Connecticut, a super PAC formed by the same law firm that represented Tom Foley, the GOP nominee in 2010 and 2014, until last year.
As of Saturday, it reported raising $2.2 million, mostly from the RGA, and spending $2.1 million.
Connecticut Forward, a state affiliate of the Democratic Governors Association, has raised and incurred expenses of $2.5 million in opposition to Foley as of Wednesday. Its funds have come from the DGA and major public-employee unions.
Grow Connecticut and Connecticut Forward are the two super PACS that have spent heavily on negative television ads directed at voters in the race for governor.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade group for gun manufacturers, reported incurring an expense of $56,306 for mail in opposition to Malloy, who signed a gun control law that included a ban on the sale of the best-selling AR-15 rifle.
The Working Families Party reported making a small expenditure in support of Malloy, while raising $110,000 from unions. It reports incurring expenses of nearly $450,000.