Gov. Christine Gregoire has raised more campaign money than any other governor at mid-term, but she's putting on one more hard push before having to put her fundraising on hold until April.

Records at the Public Disclosure Commission show Gregoire has raised a bit more than $1.5 million for her 2008 re-election campaign. At this point in former Gov. Gary Locke's first term, he had raised about $319,000. In 2002, before he decided not to run for a third term in '04, he had raised about $412,000. And he was considered a prodigious fundraiser.

Gregoire clearly wants to scare away serious competition in 2008.

"Dear Friend," Gregoire wrote in an e-mail to supporters Thursday, "I need your help one more time this year."

State campaign finance rules say that the governor and legislators have to stop raising money from 30 days prior to a legislative session to 30 days after the session adjourns. That freeze goes into effect at midnight tonight. And Gregoire is using the pending deadline to push donors:

While I will be focused on the legislative session and doing the state's business my opponents can continue to raise money for their campaign to unseat me during these five-plus months. I need your help again today.

There are no opponents yet. The most likely Republican opponent, former state Sen. Dino Rossi, has not yet announced whether he'll try again after he came within a handful of votes of beating Gregoire in 2004. He is trying to keep a public profile, but Rossi has not raised any money.

Ralph Thomas looked at Gregoire's fundraising in more detail in August. He found that, "Much of Gregoire's money has come from groups that stand to gain from legislation that passed since she took office."

A look at more recent donations show business interests continue to donate heavily. What really stood out was money from payday lending companies. Four check-cashing companies each donated $2,400 to Gregoire on Nov. 2. The companies are Check 'N Go, Check Into Cash, Dollar Financial Group and QC Holdings Inc. There's also $1,000 from Checkmate on Oct. 11, and $1,000 each that day from three members of the Bassford family, who own Washington-based MoneyTree Inc.

Payday loan companies made $1.4 billion in loans in the state last year, according to a recent report by the state Department of Financial Institutions.

There is already a fight brewing in the Legislature over payday lending. At the News Tribune's editorial blog, David Seago has a good summary of what to expect come January.