It’s probably not enough to keep up with David Vitter’s $1.1 million, and the $1.9 million Dardenne has in the bank isn’t going to hold up against Vitter’s $4.2 million. But Dardenne doesn’t have to beat Vitter, yet. He just has to make the runoff against him.

And so this is enough to keep him going…

Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne brought in $519,000 for his governor’s race campaign in the latest fundraising quarter.

His campaign said Friday that the Republican has raised $2.8 million for the race so far, including the half-million dollars received since the start of this year. The campaign said it has $1.9 million in the bank for the Oct. 24 election.

Dardenne remains behind the fundraising prowess of U.S. Sen. David Vitter, the governor’s race front-runner. Vitter’s campaign said this week the GOP senator has $4.2 million in cash on hand after raising $1.1 million this period.

Two other major candidates – Republican Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle and Democratic state Rep. John Bel Edwards – haven’t released their figures.

Fundraising reports are due Monday to the state ethics office.

Dardenne is going to want to show that he’s ahead of Angelle and Edwards, because despite taking a few shots at Vitter in last week’s PAR forum Angelle and Edwards are his real opponents now. One of those three will be in the runoff with the Senator in the governor’s race, and Dardenne could be finding himself behind Angelle on money and Edwards on loyal voters.

It’s early, though, and the 2nd quarter is the period in which races are truly won and lost. When Angelle and Edwards release their numbers later today we’ll know where Dardenne really stands.