[10/31/03]The latest campaign-finance reports show funding sources the same for both Senate District 23 candidates and contributions topping $100,000.

Sen. Mike Chaney, R-Vicksburg, 59, and Democratic challenger Marcie Tanner Southerland, 50, reported receiving 40 percent of their $104,416 total donations from Oct. 1 to Oct. 25.

They and 23 other candidates for contested races for county and district offices submitted the reports listing donations and spending before Tuesday as required by law. The reports are the last until after next week’s voting.

Chaney’s campaign reported receiving $26,300 and spending $22,683 during the period, with $25,064 in cash remaining. Southerland’s campaign reported receiving $15,420 and spending $11,411, and having $4,688 in cash.

Southerland’s report showed her two largest contributors were McComb attorneys Thomas W. Brock and William S. Guy, who each made their second $2,500 contribution to her campaign during the period.

Southerland said their contributions helped pay for the $7,152 in radio advertising her campaign purchased during this month’s reporting period.

“They were in-kind contributions,” she said, adding that the checks were written directly to the radio stations.

The only limit on contributions is that corporations are capped at $1,000.

The previous reports were for July through September. The report for Southerland, an attorney, county prosecutor and former justice court judge, showed that about half of her contributions came from attorneys or their associates. Several of her contributors were from the McComb area. Guy also contributes heavily to the state trial lawyers’ association.

In a Monday debate, she said the McComb firm members were like family and that it’s natural for attorneys to support attorneys.

Chaney continued to report contributions from groups and individuals with interests in business and medicine. His largest contributor was the political action committee of Mississippi Medical Association, which gave $7,000. That amount accounted for 11 percent of his contribution total for the year of $64,196.

An association representative explained that level of giving by saying it had “seen how much the trial lawyers were giving” Southerland, Chaney said.

Chaney also received $1,000 each during October from six other sources, including the International Paper Company PAC, BancorpSouth and Vicksburg residents Larry and Carolyn Lambiotte and Mr. and Mrs. Fred Farrell.

In the debate, Chaney said he supported further civil justice or tort reform. Southerland has said she would wait to assess effects of the changes before considering supporting further changes.

In a separate campaign-finance report filed Tuesday, the Old Bridge PAC reported new receipts of $1,330 and expenditures of $1,505.

The group advocates opening the U.S. 80 bridge, now closed to vehicular traffic but open for trains, to pedestrians and bicyclists.

The political action committee reported a year-to-date total of $1,630 in both receipts and expenditures. Fifty-nine percent of that, $965, has been contributed by Vicksburg attorney and committee chairman A. Ray Duncan Jr.

Forty-five percent of the PAC’s spending, $730, has gone toward the conducting of an opinion poll in the race for Warren County District 4 supervisor, with an additional $546 going toward postage.