Hundreds of thousands of dollars have poured in to candidates vying for Las Vegas City Council jobs that pay $45,000 a year each, according to campaign finance reports released Tuesday.

Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian was the top fundraiser among the candidates, collecting $316,000 between Jan. 1 and March 22 in her bid to keep her council seat. At least $25,000 of that money was from limited liability companies or family trusts with the Tarkanian name on it.

Laurie Bisch, a Las Vegas police officer running against Tarkanian for the Ward 1 seat, raised $181,000 and another $20,000 from in-kind contributions. Shawn Spanier, a Las Vegas businessman, raised $68,000.

Spanier campaign consultant Gary Gray said, "We raised enough money to get our message out. Now it's in the voters hands."

In the 10-candidate race for the Ward 5 seat, Ricki Barlow, a former council liaison, raised the most money, $208,000, while lawyer Stacie Truesdell posted the second largest amount, $170,000.

Early voting started March 17, but this is the first glimpse for the public about who is behind the campaigns. It will also be the last look before the April 3 election day.

The next time the law requires candidates to submit financial disclosures will be May 29. That leaves voters in the dark about who will make last-minute campaign donations between March 22 and when they step into the voting booth on Tuesday.

If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote next week, the top two vote-getters will face off in the general election June 5.

All but a handful of candidates turned in their campaign expenditures and expenses at City Hall on Tuesday, making them available to the public.

Tarkanian sent hers by certified mail, her campaign said, which is allowed by law. Her campaign faxed over a copy of the report to the Review-Journal.

In the Ward 1 race, Tarkanian has taken hits from her opponents for contributions from lobbyists who frequently come before the City Council.

Tarkanian said those lobbyists issues were in wards other than hers, however, and were routine. Tarkanian has also pointed to her record of voting against issues that some of her contributors had pushed for, and she has indeed developed a reputation as a maverick on the City Council.

From the beginning of the campaign, Tarkanian has said that she has heard that developer Bill Walters was funding her opponents campaigns in retaliation for her role in scuttling a proposal to build homes next to the city's wastewater treatment plant.

Neither Spanier nor Bisch received money directly from Walters or any company for which he is a named director.

"I think this has been put to rest every place but in Lois' mind," said Dan Hart, campaign consultant for Bisch. "The fact of the matter is Lois Tarkanian is trying to make this about Billy Walters, and it isn't going to work."

Tarkanian said Tuesday that she continues to believe Walters and others against whom she has voted are funding her opponents.

She pointed to Bisch's in-kind and cash contributions from billboard companies, $10,000 donations from auto dealerships along Sahara Avenue that she has tried to put restrictions on and a payday loan company that she has opposed.

"When you make the votes you think are right, when you vote according to your conscience, some people are not happy," she said. "And they're going to contribute to a candidate, hoping to get you out of office."

Among Tarkanian's contributors are developer Irwin Molasky, who gave $5,000; Olympic Garden owner Pete Eliades, who gave $5,000; Station Casinos, which gave $10,000; and the Four Queens Hotel, which gave her $2,000.