– Regardless of its outcome, the cash race surrounding the summer-long campaign to receive the Republican caucus’s nomination for Speaker of the House was a big boost for more than 80 GOP members.

Over the summer, as the two candidates for Speaker – Rep. John Diehl, R-Town and Country, and Rep. Caleb Jones, R-Columbia – were working Republican members for support, the two spent a combined total of $110,200 on dozens of campaign committees, according to Missouri Ethics Commission reports filed on Tuesday.

John, the current House Majority Floor Leader, was the race’s victor, pulling more than two-thirds of the vote last month. He was also the ultimate spender, dispersing $62,000 on 81 lawmakers. He sent $1,000 checks to about 40 members, and $500 checks to the other half. Aside from that, he contributed $2,000 to Rep. Dean Dohrman, R-La Monte, and $1,500 each to Rep. Stanley Cox, R-Sedalia, and Chuck Gatschenberger, R-St. Louis, who is currently in a Republican primary race for state Senate.

Dohrman was perhaps the biggest winner of them all, pulling the $2,000 from John Diehl and another $1,000 from Jones, to rake in a combined $3,000 from the Speaker’s race.

Both of the candidates wrote campaign checks to 30 of the same Republican members. Jones was the only one, however, to give a cash boost to Reps. Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, or Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia.

Jones, who lost the election on September 11, spent $32,000 on 32 individual members, on top of a $16,200 contribution to the House Republican Campaign committee. He ended his financial quarter with nearly $64,000 on hand, compared to Diehl’s $270,770.

Despite the election’s timing more than a year ahead of the 2014 election, Diehl’s nomination as Speaker will not be considered by the entire House until the 98th General Assembly convenes in January of 2015. The seat’s current occupant, Rep. Tim Jones, R-Eureka, will hold the seat until his term expires at the end of 2014.