Dan Coats reached into his own deep pockets to help finance his bid to return to the Senate.

Coats, the leading Republican in a five-candidate primary next Tuesday, loaned his campaign $200,000 on April 22.

In an e-mail, campaign spokesman Pete Seat described the loan as “a bridge between pledges and deposits.”

After retiring from the Senate in 1999, Coats became wealthy as a lawyer and lobbyist in Washington.

Democrats and some conservative detractors have noted repeatedly that Coats missed a deadline to file a personal financial disclosure report detailing the sources of his income. Coats’ campaign said the papers will be filed soon.

Coats raised $446,000 through April 14 — well ahead of the $263,000 raised by state Sen. Marlin Stutzman and the $52,000 taken in by former Rep. John Hostettler.

Two lesser-known Republicans, banker Don Bates Jr. and businessman Richard Behney, an organizer of tea party protests in the state, also are seeking the nomination.

Because of the GOP spending on the primary, Rep. Brad Ellsworth, the likely Democratic nominee, can expect to go into the summer with a fundraising edge.

Coats had put $25,000 into the campaign kitty in February, shortly after he entered the race for the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh.