FEC filings are in for the second quarter of 2012 and Democrat Derek Kilmer and Republican Bill Driscoll far outpace the other candidates, which is not a surprise to any of them.

Kilmer issued a press release saying he raised more than $455,000 in the second quarter, putting his overall total at $$816,142. Again, much of Kilmer’s money is from individual donations, but he picked up a fair chunk this time around from PACs and other committees.

The bulk of Driscoll’s money comes from his own savings. The candidate has contributed $520,000 of his own money and picked up $312,395.72 from individuals. He has another $1,000 from PACs and a few hundred from other sources, putting his total at $834,032.93. Driscoll has spent about $122,000, while Kilmer is right around $100,000.

Jesse Young has raised about $141,000 with $88,000 coming from the candidate himself.

Doug Cloud has given his campaign about $53,000 of the near $72,000 he has raised. No new information was available on Stephan Brodhead, who originally loaned his campaigned $133,000, or David “Ike” Eichner, who in the last FEC filing had no money raised.

No information was available about Eric Arentz, an independent.

We’ll dig more into who’s contributing in the coming days.

Whether the money will matter will be a compelling question in the coming days on the Republican side.

Clearly Driscoll hasn’t been hurt by it. He’s airing commercials and has picked up some significant endorsements. But Cloud went into this race with the highest name recognition and Young only stopped campaigning between 2010 and this election between the 2010 primary and the general election that year, if that long.

Derek Kilmer, state senator and candidate for Congress, held his Kitsap kickoff fundraiser at the offices of Rice Fergus Miller Tuesday evening. It was hard to do the count, but I’d guess there were as many as 200 people there, give or take a few. Among them were several of the same people who attended the Rob McKenna event. The suggested donation was $50.

Kilmer is among seven candidates seeking to replace fellow Democrat Norm Dicks in Congress. All but one, Indepent Eric Arentz, of the other candidates are Republicans: Stephan Brodhead, Doug Cloud, Bill Driscoll, David “Ike” Eichner and Jesse Young.

Jordan Schrader of the (Tacoma) News Tribune wrote a nice profile of the race, notable for former state GOP Chairman Chris Vance’s take on the race.

From the story:

“It still includes downtown Tacoma and more areas of the state that elect Democrats than (elect) Republicans,” former state GOP chairman Chris Vance said. “It would be a pretty big upset for a Republican to win this race.”

Vance – who knows something about tough races for Congress, having lost to U.S. Rep. Adam Smith of Tacoma in 2000 – said he had written off Republicans’ chances in the 6th until Driscoll decided to run. With a well-funded candidate, his party has a shot – maybe a 20 percent chance, Vance figures.

On Tuesday Steve Rice said Kilmer is smart, well meaning (“He’s going to make the right decision.) and decent, that he would be proud to have Kilmer as his representative.

Kilmer, in addition the stories about his Norwegian grandparents and unwittingly knocking on the door of Norm Dicks’ mother, gave his vision for what government could do. He doesn’t see government as a job creator, but thinks it helps the private sector create jobs. Evidence: The parking garage in Bremerton, which led to a 10-screen movie theater.

Kilmer said jobs are needed locally. “I don’t want our community’s top export to be our kids.” He said he doesn’t want government to be big, but he doesn’t want it to be hindered by the “belief that government is too incompetent to do anything right.”

The Gig Harbor Democrat said he sat with the Seattle Times editorial board earlier in the day. He said he wouldn’t name names, but that one of his opponents said, “Education is overrated.” He disagrees. Let’s see if the Seattle Times tells us who said it and in what context.

Kilmer also said members of Congress should be working to solve problems, not counting successes by how bad the other party looks. The most common question he gets asked, he said, is why he’s running when Congress is so broken. People also ask him how he can run when he has two young daughters at home. (They’re 2 and 6.) He said he’s running for his daughters, and specifically because Congress is broken.

Kilmer also stated his commitment to ways government can serve people, drawing on the experience of his grandmother. Her husband (Kilmer’s grandfather) died 31 years ago. Kilmer said her life would have looked quite a bit different had she not had Medicare and Social Security. He also said no one should go broke by getting sick.

State Sen. Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island, finished the evening saying if Kilmer wins she’ll feel the same as she did when her brother left for college — sad to see him go but knowing he will be doing great things. She spoke of his reputation among state Senate members in both parties as being respectful and humble, that he is adept at gathering allies from both sides because of those traits.

It being a Kilmer event, there was pie.