WASHINGTON — Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson is reeling in money for his campaign, while his potential tea party opponents sit on the sidelines even with the state’s first closed primary coming up in May.

Simpson raised more than $200,000 in just the last three months of the year, newly released disclosures show. His campaign accounts are flush enough that he was able to give away most of that, passing $150,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee for use in competitive races.

The official filing period hasn’t arrived, and Simpson’s opponents on the right insist he’s vulnerable, particularly with the new Republican primary rules in which only voters who affiliate with the GOP are allowed to cast a ballot. Such closed party primaries are meant to prevent Democrats and others from participating and often favor more conservative candidates. But so far no Republican challenger has emerged to start gathering the needed support before the primary.

“You’d have heard rumblings I think before now, somebody saying ‘I’m going to take him on,’” said John Freemuth, a Boise State University political science professor. “And we haven’t heard a thing.”

Freemuth said he wasn’t surprised by the silence.

“Simpson is fairly high up in the Republican ranks, a cardinal on the Appropriations Committee,” Freemuth said, describing the congressman’s role as chairman of a subcommittee on the powerful spending panel. “And he knows how to be a conservative, play to the right side of the party when he needs to. With that kind of fundraising I just can’t imagine anybody would think they’d have much of a chance.”

But Chick Heileson, who ran against Simpson in 2010, said he and others are considering a run.

“I just talked to a legislator last night — I won’t tell you what her name is, but she was thinking about it,” Heileson said. “I’ve talked to other guys who have run before who are talking about it. That would make it real nice for Mike Simpson if all of us run.”

SIMPSON WOULD RUN IN A CLOSED PRIMARY

Heileson campaigned hard in 2010 and ended up with 24 percent of the vote in a four-way Republican primary race. Simpson won with 58 percent, his worst showing in either a primary or general election since 1998.

Heileson said he believes Simpson would be vulnerable in a closed Republican primary. Simpson is a leader in the Go Big Coalition, a bipartisan group of lawmakers who have been working on solutions to the federal deficit. Simpson has said revenues will be needed as well as spending cuts, a position not always popular on the right.

Ray Rammell of Idaho Falls, a co-founder of Tea Party Southeast Idaho, said in October, “We are looking for somebody to challenge him, because he is not a fiscally conservative constitutionalist.”

Rammell didn’t return a phone message from the Idaho Statesman last week asking how the hunt was going.

Simpson said in a recent interview that he hasn’t heard of anyone who’s serious about running against him, but that the situation isn’t going to be clear until the official filing period comes along. Candidates have between Feb. 27 and March 9 to file with the Idaho Secretary of State’s office.

“I’ve had people running for probably six months by this time of year before,” Simpson said. “And I’ve had people that spring up at the last minute in the filing period.”

PAC, INDIVIDUAL DONATIONS

He has raised more than $600,000 this election cycle, no doubt helped by the fact that he is one of the dozen influential Appropriations subcommittee chairmen. Simpson reported $260,000 left in the bank at the end of the year with no debts.

He’s continued to bring in money since then with campaign events such as a Jan. 31 lunch at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, which describes itself as “a refined and elegant environment for your business, political and social activities.” The event invitation listed individual donations at $500 and political action committee donations at $1,000.

Simpson has received nearly $400,000 in contributions from political action committees this election cycle and $211,000 from individuals.

He has donations from the sugar industry and the dental industry. Political action committees representing tobacco have given him money. So has the PAC representing family physicians.

Simpson brought in money from the Dairy Farmers of America, the National Association of Realtors, the National Rifle Association, Lockheed Martin and many more business groups.

Simpson at this point doesn’t have a Democratic challenger for the general election, either. Larry Grant, chairman of the Idaho Democratic Party, said in an interview that he’s been talking to several people about taking on Simpson.

But Grant said he does consider it a question whether Simpson survives the closed GOP primary.

“I expect Simpson to have a tea party challenger, and I expect that’s going to be a tough race for him,” he said.