Bill Enyart, the Democratic nominee for the 12th U.S. House District seat, raised nearly $210,000 less than GOP nominee Jason Plummer, but Enyart still prevailed in the Nov. 6 election, Federal Election Commission records show.

Enyart's successful campaign raised $855,114 as of Tuesday, including $296,606 from political action committees, or PACs, and $473,443 from individual donors.

Plummer, a Fairview Heights real estate developer, raised $1,064,524, with $422,960 from PACs, and $569,216 from individual donors.

Representatives for both the Enyart and Plummer campaigns could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Green Party candidate Paula Bradshaw, a Carbondale emergency room nurse, raised $7,733 in individual donations, FEC records show.

These numbers are still preliminary, with final fundraising figures due in early January.

Bradshaw, who refused to accept money from PACs or corporate donors, said many of her friends were appalled at the huge sums spent on campaign ads for and against Plummer and Enyart.

Bradshaw's friends "pointed out if we spent that money on feeding people or housing people, we could solve a lot of problems," she said.

The fundraising totals are in addition to the nearly $7.5 million altogether spent by outside charitable groups and super PACs to defeat or support Enyart and Plummer, FEC records show.

Under the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, certain charities, super PACs and other outside groups may give unlimited amounts of money to support or defeat a federal political candidate as long as these groups don't coordinate with the candidate's campaign.

Overall, the candidates in the 435 House races and 33 U.S. Senate races raised $1.04 billion in the 2011-12 election cycle and spent $905 million, the FEC showed.

Republican House candidates raised $584 million, while Democrats spent $445 million.

In Illinois alone, candidates in the 18 House races raised $49.3 million, with Republicans raising $25.8 million and Democrats raising $25.5 million, FEC records show.

Enyart, a Belleville lawyer and retired adjutant general of the Illinois National Guard, won the election by near 9 percentage points to replace U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Belleville, who steps down in January after 24 years.

The 12th District encompasses 12 counties, and runs from Alton in Madison County to Cairo, in Alexander County, in the state's southernmost tip.

In the race for the 13th House District, which touches 14 central Illinois counties from Madison County to Champaign County, winner Rodney Daivs, R-Taylorville, raised $1,112,509 versus the $1,051,906 raised by runner-up Dr. David Gill, the Bloomington Democrat who lost by fewer than 1,300 votes.

Davis, who entered the 13th House race in late May after incumbent and primary winner U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Champaign, dropped out, resulted from "excitement for his candidacy," said campaign spokesman Patrick Pfingsten.

"He said publicly from the start that he was going to hit the ground running, and knew that raising funds was going to be a priority," Pfingsten said. "A lot of people believed in his message and contributed toward it."

Independent candidate John Hartman, of Edwardsville, raised $8,790, FEC records show.

Outside groups spent about $6.9 million combined either to support or defeat Davis and Gill, FEC records show.

Davis, Gill and Hartman had vied to replace Johnson, who retires in January after 11 years in office.

Contact reporter Mike Fitzgerald at mfitzgerald@bnd.com or 239-2533.