Republican Blaine Luetkemeyer’s personal dollar commitment to his Congressional race has reached almost $1.5 million.

Luetkemeyer on Friday reported to the Federal Election Commission that he  kicked in an additional $340,000 of his own money into his campaign for the 9th District Congressional seat.

That boosts his personal total for the overall primary-general election cycle to $1.46 million. Some of that was listed as contributions to his campaign, some as loans.

Overall, Luetkemeyer’s campaign committee now has amassed nearly $2.1 million. That includes about $638,000 in donations from others.

Democratic opponent Judy Baker’s campaign has raised more than $1.3 million, with her only personal money a $10,000 loan.

However, independent expenditures by other pro-Baker committees (totaling at least $1.5 million) have exceeded independent expenditures by other pro-Luetkemeyer committees (more than $600,000.)

The bottom line in all this:  the 25-county district in northeast and central Missouri has been inundated with a rash of TV and radio commercials and mailings - many of them negative. 

Total spending in the race for both the primary and general elections for the two candidates is likely to exceed $5.6 million.