ST. LOUIS COUNTY — St. Louis County Executive Charlie A. Dooley has raised three times more money than the Republican who wants to challenge him, the most recent campaign reports show.

Dooley, a Democrat, collected nearly $366,000 in the period from July 1 to Sept. 30. Bill Corrigan, a Republican lawyer from Ladue, obtained nearly $106,000. The information was in quarterly campaign finance reports filed Thursday with the state ethics commission.

Voters will select the next county executive in November 2010. Voters will choose party nominees next August.

So far, Dooley has raised close to $1.3 million for his re-election bid since he started his current term as county executive in January 2007. Corrigan has raised about $382,000 since he began his campaign last May.

John Temporiti, campaign manager and treasurer for Dooley, predicted that his candidate will have $1 million in the bank by the end of the year. Now he has nearly $715,000. The campaign has a broad base of about 700 donors, he said. In the past quarter, 136 donors contributed more than $500 and 223 less than that amount, he said.

Donations in the July-September quarter exceeded those of the previous quarter by 15 percent, Temporiti said. He expects a greater percentage increase in the current one.

"We're laying the foundation, the base for a successful campaign in 2010," he said.

In a statement, Corrigan also expressed satisfaction with "solid third quarter" fundraising totals. He said he had 614 donors. He has about $320,000 in his campaign chest.

Susan Ryan, a spokeswoman for Corrigan, said her candidate is "absolutely not" discouraged by his opponent's fundraising. Corrigan "feels we are on track. He has high hopes about what he will be able to raise," she said.

"Charlie has been at this for seven years; Bill for four and half months. We've raised about $400,000. That's pretty good for the short time," Ryan said. "We're pretty energized about this."

Almost all of Dooley's department heads contributed $1,000 to $1,500 to his campaign. Temporiti said that neither he nor Dooley asked for the contributions.

"They are political appointees. They have an investment in their boss's successful campaign," he said.

The St. Louis Cardinals baseball team made two donations to Dooley. Among other donors were August Busch III, former head of Anheuser-Busch breweries; J.H. Driscoll, president of J.H. Berra construction company; the Mechanical Contractors Association; Pace Properties, Realtors; and Michael Steanberg, president of THF Realty Inc.

Also donating were the political action committees of general contractors, home builders and the management and labor organizations in the plumbing industry.

The political committee of AmerenUE made an in-kind donation; food and drink at a reception, Temporiti said.

Dooley reported spending about $63,000 in the reporting period and about $480,000 thus far.

More than a third of the spending went to Hamilton Campaigns of Fernandina Beach, Fla., for a poll. Temporiti received several payments for his work as campaign manager. He said he is doing that job part time but expects it to take more time as the county executive election draws near.

Numerous lawyers donated to Corrigan's campaign. Emerson made a contribution as did former County Executive H.C. Milford.

The Thompson Coburn law firm and S.W. Wilson Co. contributed to both candidates.

Corrigan spent about $35,000 in the reporting period and nearly $56,000 thus far. Most of his spending was to Axiom Strategies of Kansas City, consulting and printing.