SIERRA VISTA — To date, Tim Bee’s congressional campaign war chest is less than a fourth the size of Gabrielle Giffords’.

Giffords, the Democratic U.S. representative from Arizona’s 8th District, has raised $1.3 million cash “after another exceptionally strong quarter of fundraising,” her campaign manager, Michael McNulty, reported Tuesday.

Giffords is halfway through her first term in Congress, after being elected in November 2006. She replaced Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, who retired after 11 terms in the office.

Bee, a four-term state senator from Legislative District 30, which includes Sierra Vista, and president of the Arizona Senate, entered the race for Congress on Jan. 19. As of Thursday, his funding stood at “a little under $300,000,” said Meg Econ, the manager of Bee’s congressional exploratory committee.

“We’ve only just begun,” Econ said, noting the funds were raised during the exploratory phase and can legitimately be rolled over into Bee’s congressional campaign. She said the exploratory committee’s purpose was not to raise funds, but now Bee will throttle up the quest for dollars.

“We’re raising money 24/7,” Econ said.

Records filed with the Federal Election Commission, available online at fec.gov, show that Giffords has a long list of individual contributors, mostly in the Tucson area, plus nearly half a million dollars from political action committees.

As of Thursday night, posted records on fec.gov did not appear to be up to date for Bee, but the latest report filing of Sept. 30 showed most of his contributors also to be from the Tucson area, with a handful in Sierra Vista and other communities in his state legislative district and beyond.

McNulty released Giffords’ numbers prior to Thursday’s FEC deadline. “Longtime supporters have joined forces with new ones in a groundswell of grass-roots support,” McNulty said.