Democrat Larry Farnese, almost certain to be the powerful 1st District's new state Senator, was hoping to wipe out his significant campaign debt before Election Day next week. The campaign made progress, but not enough to reach that goal.

Farnese, who won a hotly-contested April primary over electrician's union leader John Dougherty, still has more than $334,000 in campaign debt, his campaign manager Renee Gillinger told PolitickerPA.com Monday.

"We're working on it," Gillinger said. "It's a lot. I'm really impressed with how much we raised in this period, especially during the summer and with all the other campaigns going on.

Farnese faces underdog Republican Jack Morley in the overwhelmingly Democratic district.

His debt had stood at about half-a-million dollars after the expensive primary win, and the campaign underwent an aggressive fundraising push to wipe it clean over the last several weeks. The effort included fundraisers with high-profile city lawmakers and one with Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.

The debt ballooned in large part thanks to loans from political action committees controlled by Senate colleagues of Farnese's soon-to-be predecessor, indicted state Sen. Vince Fumo (D-Philadelphia). But while Farnese's recent campaign finance report had not yet been posted on the Department of State Web site Monday afternoon, Gillinger said the largest debts remaining were for direct mail and veteran communications consultant Ken Snyder.

"Luckily, all the folks we owe this money to have been nice," Gillinger said.

Farnese did manage to raise over $272,000 between late May and mid-October, Gillinger said, and has almost $45,000 in cash on hand for the home stretch. It's likely Farnese will resume his fundraising schedule after the election, with the goal of retiring as much of the debt as possible before he takes office in January.

"I think he'll still be able to raise a significant amount of money before the end of the calendar year," Gillinger said.