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By Dave Williams
Morris News Service

WASHINGTON - Multimillionaire business executive Guy Millner is fast becoming the biggest spender of his own money in Georgia political history.

The chairman of Norrell Corp., a Republican U.S. Senate hopeful, has poured nearly $5.4 million of his personal wealth into his bid this year to succeed retiring Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., including more than $2.2 million this month.

Combined with what his campaign has brought in from other sources, Mr. Millner should easily eclipse the approximately $6 million he spent in his unsuccessful bid for governor two years ago, said Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia.

``This will go down as the most expensive campaign for a candidate in the history of the state,'' Mr. Bullock said. ``If he loses, it won't be because of money.''

Mr. Millner raised about $1.3 million between Oct. 1 and Oct. 16, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. He loaned most of those funds - about $985,000 - to the campaign, while receiving another $269,000 from individual contributors and about $58,000 from political action committees.

Mr. Millner has loaned another $1.2 million to the campaign since Oct. 16, according to supplemental reports filed with the FEC.

His Democratic opponent, former Georgia Secretary of State Max Cleland, raised more than $280,000 between Oct. 1 and Oct. 16. About $185,000 came from individual donors, and Mr. Cleland took in about $77,000 in PAC contributions.

Mr. Millner spent more than $1.6 million during the 16-day reporting period, including nearly $1.2 million to bombard the television airwaves with campaign ads. Mr. Cleland, who had more money in his campaign treasury going into October, spent a comparatively paltry $266,000, including about $166,000 on TV ads.

Larry Makinson, deputy director of the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics, said only one Senate candidate, Virginia Democrat Mark Warner, is on track to spend more of his own money this year than Mr. Millner. Mr. Warner, a telecommunications tycoon, is in an uphill battle to unseat veteran Sen. John Warner, R-Va. The two are not related.

The Cleland camp has criticized Mr. Millner repeatedly for using his deep pockets to try to buy the election with negative advertising.

Millner spokesman Stuart Roy said the huge amount of money Mr. Millner has been willing to invest is indicative of how strongly he believes in what he's doing. Mr. Roy also pointed out that Mr. Millner has received broad grass-roots support, with individual contributions from all 159 counties in the state.

Mr. Millner has enjoyed his strongest PAC support from the business community, while much of Mr. Cleland's backing has come from organized labor.

Mr. Millner's latest FEC report lists contributions from PACs representing the banking and insurance industries. Mr. Cleland reported donations from unions representing teachers, carpenters, machinists and physical therapists.