Wilson businessman Gary Trauner has raised almost $400,000 for his run at Wyoming’s lone U.S. House seat, and he has more than $350,000 cash on hand.

Trauner, a Democrat, announced his totals Thursday after filing his quarterly report for the period between October and December with the Federal Election Commission.

“It is a pretty good number,” Trauner said. “Clearly we are pretty far down the road compared to where we were last time.”

Trauner, who narrowly lost his bid to unseat Rep. Barbara Cubin in 2006, informally estimated that to remain competitive throughout the campaign a candidate will have to have access to about $1.5 million, whether through personal campaign funds or outside funding from national committees or interest groups.

“If I am correct, last time my opponent raised about $1.2 million and had several hundred thousand at least put in by outside interest groups,” he said. “Add all those numbers up and I think I probably need to get in the same ballpark to get my message out.”

For the 2006 election, Trauner raised about $960,000.

To date, Trauner has raised about $400,000 for his campaign, including about $220,000 in the final quarter. The majority of Trauner’s money came from individual contributions, but about $25,000 came from political action committees.

“We have a financing system in the country where we have to have resources to get our message out, and the simple truth is PACs are part of that,” Trauner said. “We will have the resources to get things done. If PACs are part of that, that is fine, but I will focus on individuals and will focus on people in Wyoming.”

Most of the committees Trauner received money from are linked to Democrats in congressional leadership posts such as House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Trauner said accepting money from the Democratic “establishment” in Washington can be problematic for a Wyoming Democrat.

“I didn’t ask for their money, but obviously I am a good viable candidate and they sent me the money,” he said. “That is how our system works, but I am not soliciting national Democratic money.”

An early statewide poll shows Trauner essentially tied with Republican candidate Cynthia Lummis. Because she declared her candidacy later than Trauner, Lummis did not have to file a quarterly financial report.

The poll showed Trauner garnering 41 percent of the vote to Lummis’ 40 percent, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. The remaining 19 percent of voters said they were undecided.

Trauner led all candidates in name recognition, with 80 percent, with Lummis trailing at 70 percent.

Mason-Dixon Polling and Research conducted the poll by calling 625 registered voters between Jan. 18 and Jan. 21.

Among Democrats, 83 percent supported Trauner, but perhaps the biggest boost came from Republicans and independents.

Among GOP voters, 23 percent said they support Trauner and another 23 percent were undecided; among independents, those figures rose to 37 percent and 30 percent, respectively.

Trauner has not started intensive campaigning yet, he said, but plans to ramp up his activities in the coming months.

“Right now we are in the process of making sure we have the team in place,” he said. “I want every possible dollar to go toward contacting people in the state of Wyoming to get my message out.”

While he is happy with the financial health of his campaign, Trauner said he doesn’t agree with the attention the media pay to finances.

“When we are talking about money, we are not talking about the issues that matter,” he said, “but we have a system that promotes talking about money and not talking about issues that matter, and that needs to change.”