There was no clear-cut winner in the fundraising sweepstakes for what’s expected to be a hard-fought race for a Columbus-area congressional seat, but there was plenty of fodder for partisans on both sides. During the last three months of 2007, Republican state Sen. Steve Stivers raised nearly $50,000 more than Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy, a Franklin County commissioner, in the race for the 15 th Congressional District, reports filed yesterday show. But Kilroy’s balance eclipses Stivers’ by more than $200,000, because she entered the race months before Stivers did. Kilroy narrowly lost to Republican Rep. Deborah Pryce of Upper Arlington in 2006. Stivers is seeking to replace Pryce; he has one opponent in the Republican primary, Robert M. Wagner, an Ohio State University economics teacher. Federal fundraising reports for Oct. 1 to Dec. 31 show that Stivers took in $405,000, compared with $357,000 for Kilroy and less than $4,000 for Wagner. About 54 percent of Stivers’ haul came from political action committees, or PACs, compared with Kilroy’s 22 percent. Stivers, on the other hand, raised a larger share of his money from Ohio sources: 62 percent, compared with about 25 percent for Kilroy, according to the filings. Wagner reported no PAC money and no funding from outside Ohio. Stivers, a former bank lobbyist, pulled in big PAC donations from the financial industry, including Ohio-based National City Corp. and Keycorp. Kilroy reported more individual contributions but also more money from outside Ohio, including large sums from Emily’s List, which backs Democratic women who support abortion rights, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Both are based in Washington, D.C. All three candidates found something to celebrate. Stivers noted that he had raised more than $400,000 since entering the race Nov. 5. Kilroy pointed to donations from 1,292 people since Oct. 1 as evidence of broad-based support. And Wagner said his puny totals are evidence that he’s not beholden to "big-money boys and PACs."