Huntsville attorney Cheryl Baswell Guthrie (R) announced Tuesday that in the month since she filed her campaign papers with the Federal Election Commission, she had raised more than $200,000 for her bid to fill the 5th district seat of retiring Democratic Rep. Bud Cramer.

Baswell Guthrie, who was a 2006 nominee for state Senate, entered the increasingly crowded Republican primary race in early April following Cramer’s March retirement announcement. Shortly after entering the race, Baswell Guthrie said she would be willing to lend her campaign up to $100,000 to get it off the ground.

Baswell Guthrie’s top competition in the GOP primary appears to be commercial insurance broker Wayne Parker, who was the Republican nominee against Cramer twice in the mid-1990s. Parker had raised about $177,000 for the race as of March 31.

The top Democrat in the race, and the one whom Cramer has endorsed, is state Sen. Parker Griffith. Griffith, who beat Baswell Guthrie in his 2006 state Senate race, reported $112,000 in cash on hand at the end of the first quarter.

— John McArdle