Willis' campaign officials have until Monday to file their campaign disclosure figures with the State Ethics Commission, but they say the final figure for three week's worth of fundraising will top the $200,000 mark.
"It's well over $200,000 for contributions from across the state," Willis campaign spokesman Joe Werner said.
Werner said the campaign probably will file its disclosure by Friday afternoon.
Willis announced in June he would run for the Democratic nomination to face Sanford in the 2006 general election. Since then, he has held two major fundraising events.
Clearwater Sen. Tommy Moore announced his candidacy in April. Neither Democrat is well known outside of his own community, but they've both been traveling around the state trying to change that.
Campaign fundraising will be a major concern for Willis and Moore. They not only have to fund a primary campaign, but also one of them could end up facing Sanford's well-bankrolled campaign.
Because of that, Willis said his campaign is focused on raising money.
"I think that primarily it'll continue to be fundraising for a while," Willis said. "But we're going to start getting out more, especially in other areas of the state."
Willis said he is pleased with the amount of money he's been able to raise so far, but he said not to look for expensive television ads anytime soon.
"We're going to be very frugal with the way we spend our campaign funds," he said. "The primary, as a novice, to me is more about getting out and meeting people than it is about television ads."
Moore has not submitted his campaign fundraising disclosure to the Ethics Commission yet, but Phillip Bailey, of the South Carolina Democratic Caucus, said he expects Moore's papers to be filed by Monday's deadline.
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