RSS 2.0 FeedThe Real Third Quarter Fund Raising Story
by Doug MataconisOnce again, Democrats are out raising Republicans:
The Democratic presidential candidates continued to raise significantly more money during the last three months than their Republican counterparts, according to official and unofficial third-quarter fund-raising tallies that were released yesterday.
Senator Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat, raised at least $20 million over the summer, more than $19 million of which could be spent on the primary — showing that he continued to be a formidable fund-raiser. It was unclear whether he still led in fund-raising, as he did this spring, because Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton did not release her tally. (Her aides had said that they expected to raise a similar amount.) John Edwards raised $7 million, and Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico raised $5.2 million.
By comparison, Mitt Romney, who has been one of the strongest Republican fund-raisers this election, raised only about half of what Mr. Obama raised this summer, according to a senior adviser who was granted anonymity to discuss the campaign’s finances. The adviser said that Mr. Romney brought in about $10 million from donors, and that he used more than $6 million of his own money for his campaign.
Rudolph W. Giuliani, who replaced his chief fund-raiser at the end of the quarter, did not release a tally, but said over the weekend that he thought he would “do as well as the other Republicans — maybe we will do better than some.” Fred D. Thompson raised at least $8 million in his first quarter as a candidate, according to people involved with the campaign — less than the other leading candidates raised early in their campaigns.
And Senator John McCain of Arizona raised more than $5 million, according to a Republican familiar with the campaign’s finances.
Strategists in both parties said that the fund-raising imbalance showed that Democrats, and their donors, are more energized this year as they battle to reclaim the White House after nearly eight years of Republican rule. And they said President Bush’s sagging popularity is hurting the Republicans who are vying to replace him.
“This just shows the difficult political climate that Republicans are facing,” said Scott Reed, a Republican strategist. “The bright side is that next spring, the Republicans will have plenty of money to give the candidate who goes up against Hillary Clinton.”
If they want to give any of those clowns money, that is.
I saw an official memo for a GOP nomination briefing somewhere (forgot where) and it said the GOP will have 17M to spend on its candidate. Seems kinda low, eh?
Comment by oilnwater — October 2, 2007 @ 10:33 amJust another testament to how weak the Republican field of candidates are.
Comment by Kevin — October 2, 2007 @ 4:11 pmI say RP has raised 5.5 million. What say you all?
Comment by Chris Kachouroff — October 2, 2007 @ 10:44 pmKevin, you’re right, not only is it true that the Dems are raising more money, but since the Dems HAVE LESS money, that shows how things are going. Moreover, the Straw Polls have had much lower attendance than usual. For example, Iowa was down 40% from eight years ago even though attendance was slightly higher than eight years ago. Ron Paul, of course, is doing very well in those straw polls (such as they are), and is probably the ONLY GOP guy now who can beat Hitlery or whomever the Dems nominate.
Chris, I just read that Ron Paul raised 5,080,000 rather than 5.5 million, but more importantly, he’s got between 5 million and 6 million CASH ON HAND. In any event, as we all know, if money were the only thing, “ex-President John Connally” would be writing his memoirs, but that didn’t happen. Indeed, in Statewide Straw Polls, it isn’t Rudy McRomney at all, it’s Ron Rompson. If you look at the five major Statewide Straw Polls to date, IA, IL, AL, TX, and MD, there is only one candidate who has been in the top five in all five and that’s ROn Paul. There’s only one candidate who’s been in the top three in four of the five, and that’s Ron Paul. Indeed, if there had been only 11 more votes for Ron Paul in IL and 50 in TX, it would be true that only one candidate was in the top TWO for four of the five straw polls, and that’s Ron Paul, but instead, it’s sadly true that only one candidate has been in the top two three of the five times, and that’s Mitt Romney. Paulistas need to realize that Rudy and McCain are no longer relevant and we need to start taking on Mitt and Fred, because believe me, Mitt figured out WE were the REAL contender a long time ago, back during the ABC debate just before Iowa, just as Rudy figured out we were the main contender during the Fox debate, and got creamed in the texting polly by Mitt and Ron. Indeed, the “fake” world of internet polls and texting polls (which favored BOTH Mitt and Ron) have been more accurate than the ‘real’ land-line polls where the only people left in America who not only have a land-line (many have just dumped them entirely for cell phones) but actually are there when a pollster would be calling and actually ANSWER it instead of letting it roll over are War Widows on Social Security Eating Cat Food for McCain, Unemployed Muslim-hating LOSERS for Rudy, and Desperate Housewives for Romney.
Comment by Robert Edward johnson — October 5, 2007 @ 4:56 pm