OAKLAND — Candidate Peggy Moore, in an effort to get her message to voters in the hotly contested race for the at-large City Council seat, has racked up over $62,000 in unpaid debt since she entered the race in August, campaign finance records show.

Moore owes $62,364 for TV ads, a poll and campaign literature, records show. The deadline to pay off the $15,000 poll is next week; under state election laws, bills must be paid within 45 calendar days.

In an interview Thursday, Moore said her campaign plans to pay off the polling bill before the 45-day deadline. Records filed Sept. 29 for a period covering Aug. 1 to Sept. 24 show she has a cash balance of $15,642.

Moore, who entered the race on the last possible day and has therefore had to scramble to gain recognition, raised $51,679 — more than any other candidate in the race during that time — and has spent $36,036 in other bills and expenses.

“I’ve been successful in everything that I’ve done to never finish anything with debt. We are aggressively still fundraising,” Moore said.

Moore is one of five candidates running to unseat incumbent Rebecca Kaplan in the Nov. 8 election. Matt Hummel, Bruce Quan and Nancy Sidebotham are the other challengers. Over the last filing period, Kaplan raised $49,535 and has a cash balance of $65,439 and debts of $12,281. Quan raised $25,819, has $24,381 in his coffers and has loaned his campaign $50,000. Campaign finance reports for Hummel and Sidebotham were not on the city’s website.

Moore’s online poll, which was sent out Aug. 26, came under scrutiny because it wrongly implied U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and state Assemblyman Tony Thurmond, D-Richmond, endorsed Moore. Moore called the phrasing an error and apologized.

Among her debt, Moore owes $30,000 to SCN Strategies for a television ad and about $14,000 to Madison Street Press for campaign literature, lawn signs, T-shirts and brochures. Moore has previously used the companies while running other candidates’ campaigns, including the 2014 campaign of her former boss, Mayor Libby Schaaf.

Moore said her campaign accrued the debt strategically in order to get her name out to voters and has prioritized which bills to pay first.

“I think what’s throwing people off is our strategy,” she said. “We came in the race in August. We are the underdog. I am clear who my competitor is, and I am trying to increase my name recognition.”

Kaplan questioned the strategy.

“It’s a concern that someone in one month could amass this huge amount of debt and unpaid bills and have such a huge ratio of debt to cash on hand,” Kaplan said. “It’s quite shocking.”