Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson spent big on his fourth re-election campaign, but still has a sizable campaign account, according to the post-election financial disclosures released Thursday.

Matheson spent $1.3 million on his campaign, including about $100,000 for surveys and more than $500,000 on advertising.

Those are big numbers for a House race in Utah, but the outlay is actually $300,000 less than Matheson spent in 2006.

His latest re-election effort turned out to be his easiest, which may explain the reduced spending. With 63 percent of the vote, Matheson beat Republican Bill Dew, a wealthy homebuilder.

A prodigious fundraiser, Matheson ended the race with more than $700,000 left in the bank,. In the final weeks of his re-election effort, Matheson raised $80,000. Most of his money comes from business executives and political action committees run by corporations and other politicians.

Using $570,000 of his own money, Dew ran a mostly self-funded campaign. He raised a little less than $90,000 in contributions -- about $9,000 of that came in the final weeks of the campaign.

A watchdog group in Washington filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against five congressional candidates this week, including Dew, for using campaign funding on clothing. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington claims that Dew spent $1,089 on clothes at the Men's Wearhouse. The complaint comes after Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin reportedly wore hundreds of thousands of dollars in designer clothing purchased with contributions while on the campaign trail.

"I believe all these are legitimate expenses for things I would not have needed had I not been running for office," Dew said Thursday. "My campaign prided itself on spending campaign money as wisely as possible, and I have already reimbursed the campaign these expenses so it should be a non-issue."

Congressman-elect Jason Chaffetz, who will represent Utah's 3rd District, spent $440,000 on his campaign and has $54,000 remaining. His Democratic opponent, Bennion Spencer, raised about $38,000 and had about $1,000 remaining.

The candidates in the 1st District, Rep. Rob Bishop, who easily won re-election, and his Democratic opponent Morgan Bowen, had not yet filed their disclosures.

mcanham@sltrib.com