Count Toby Nixon out when it comes to complaints about the state Republican Party being stingy with its money. Nixon was one of the GOP candidates who lost in races where the party could have spent more under state limits. He was beat by Democrat Eric Oemig.

The spending question was raised by critics of Party Chairwoman Diane Tebelius. She's being challenged by former Sen. Luke Esser, another suburban Republican victim from '06.

I've been exchanging e-mail with Nixon and he says he had all the money he needed to do the advertising he planned. He didn't ask the party for any money he didn't get. Money was not the problem.

If I had raised more money, what would I have spent it on? Voters were already complaining that they were feeling overwhelmed with mail. Some people might assume that if we had more money we would have run negative attack pieces against my opponent, but that's not my style and the people of the 45th know it. Many voters told me that they've just stop reading all campaign mail, assuming that it is just lies.

The one thing Nixon would have liked to see from the party was the 72-hour get out the vote campaign that had been promised.

As far as I can tell, it didn't happen, at least not in the 45th.

Even there, though, Nixon isn't sure it would have made a big difference. He said Democrats were energized, independents furious and Republicans discouraged "by the failures of Congress and the administration in so many areas."

In many ways, I'm surprised Republicans did as well as we did in Washington and didn't lose even more seats, given the kind of reactions we were getting.

That's largely what Tebelius has been saying — it's not any individual money decisions that doomed GOP candidates.

Nixon had about $16,000 left over after the election. He said most of that came in during the final days, and was not in response to any solicitation from his campaign.

I'm not exactly sure why people think sending a candidate $700 on election day is going to help them win!

He has plans for the surplus. He will mail a thank-you to voters, some has gone to gifts for volunteers and he commissioned a poll to find out more about what happened in the 45th.