Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake wrote last week that Joe Donnelly’s U.S. Senate campaign needed to raise at least $750,000 in second-quarter contributions, “to show what he’s made of” after several months of “meager fundraising.”

Democratic Congressman Donnelly put out word Monday he had collected $900,000. But the figure was upstaged in short order by his rival in the Nov. 6 election.

Republican state Treasurer Richard Mourdock raised $1.6 million in donations in April, May and June, according to media reports confirmed by his campaign.

Part of that period included Mourdock’s primary-election battle against six-term incumbent Sen. Richard Lugar for the GOP nomination, which Mourdock won by a wide margin May 8.

Donnelly, D-2nd, was unopposed in his party’s Senate primary. He has more than $1.3 million in cash on hand, campaign manager Elizabeth Shappell said in an email.

Mourdock’s campaign did not provide a figure on its available cash.

Second-quarter campaign finance reports must be filed with the Federal Election Commission by Sunday. Candidates who are pleased with their numbers typically make them public in advance.

Mourdock raised nearly as much money in the second quarter as he did for all of 2011 and the first three months of this year: $1.96 million. Donnelly had raised $1.71 million heading into the second quarter.

The reports do not account for money raised and spent independently of candidates by “super” political action committees.

Also Monday, the Indiana Democratic Party announced that Mourdock’s 2009 attempt to block the sale of bankrupt Chrysler to Italian automaker Fiat will be the centerpiece of its summer campaign against him.

Party Chairman Dan Parker contended Mourdock’s lawsuit on behalf of state pension and infrastructure funds that held Chrysler bonds cost Hoosier taxpayers $2.8 million, not $2 million as Mourdock has stated.

Mourdock campaign spokesman Christopher Conner said in an email: “The State of Indiana may have been billed for $2.8 million in legal fees, but they had an agreement in place that capped expenses. At the end of the day, the total that was paid in legal fees by the pension funds was $2,050,000.”

Conner said Mourdock, “stood on principle and fought for Indiana’s retired teachers and state police officers against the federal government takeover of Chrysler.”

Mourdock said at the time the sale terms favored unsecured creditors, including the United Auto Workers, over secured creditors such as the Indiana funds.

Parker said in a statement about Mourdock’s suit: “Thousands of Hoosier jobs were put at risk and millions of taxpayer dollars were wasted.”

Chrysler today employs about 5,000 at its Kokomo transmission operations.

bfrancisco@jg.net