Campaign Fundraising: Who's Ahead So Far?

Washington, DC (TLS). With precious time ticking away as we draw ever closer to that important but early deadline of 1/1/08, Republican and Democratic Presidential candidates are reporting their fundraising totals for the second quarter.

Never before in a campaign has money been so vitally important this early. And it is way too early, indeed. Yet, in order to be competitive in the early 2008 primaries, each of the candidates will need at least 100 million bucks on hand.

We can thank the masterminds of both Parties for setting up this scenario, moving state primaries earlier and earlier supposedly giving their states more clout. What they may succeed in doing instead is making the electorate totally sick of politics a year ahead of the election.

Nonetheless, this is the situation we have, and we must deal with it.

So, who is ahead so far?

Republican campaign contributions are lackluster. This is due in part to a fairly unpopular President who continues to make gargantuan mistakes, all in the name of attempting to secure a positive 'legacy.' The other factor is Fred Thompson.

And this points to a much deeper problem. The present field of candidates are not catching on with the Party's base, and thus, most are holding on to their money until Fred Thompson makes his announcement.

Among the announced Republican candidates, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and John McCain are still the top three, although McCain's 2nd quarter totals were totally disappointing, leading the candidate to cut campaign staff. Although Romney's totals look fairly good, his 2nd quarter was not up to par with his 1st quarter totals, and the candidate loaned personal cash to his campaign. Giuliani still leads the pack with a steady and consistent stream of contributions.

Giuliani's 2nd quarter totals were approximately equal to his 1st quarter totals, bringing his grand total to over 32 million.

While the Ron Paul campaign claims it has more cash on hand than McCain, in terms of totals raised so far Dr. Paul is not in the top tier. When his 1st and 2nd quarter totals are combined he comes up with roughly 2.5 million in campaign funds.

However, Paul runs a very frugal campaign. He rarely travels to campaign on the stump, and most of his funds are raised on the Internet. Thus, the candidate can make a couple of million go a very long way, and he doesn't have to worry about overhead that eats through money faster than Michael Moore can inhale four Big Macs from Mickey D's.

Duncan Hunter and Mike Huckabee appear to be in a dead-heat with regard to funds, and the rest of the 2nd tier lags far behind.

On the Democratic side, Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton in the 2nd quarter, raising 32.5 million. This means that he is now ahead of Hillary for the year, raising 55.7 million as compared to her 53 million.

John Edwards comes in third with a lackluster 9 million, followed by Bill Richardson with 7.2 million.

Although the money has taken on more importance than normal given the unusually early primaries, it is nonetheless common in campaigns for candidates who have the most money to lose in the actual vote counts. This would give hope to candidates such as Bill Richardson, Ron Paul, Duncan Hunter, and Mike Huckabee.

Here is a quick wrap-up of the top fundraisers so far, in order of their year-to-date totals:

REPUBLICANS

**Rudy Giuliani
**Mitt Romney
**John McCain
**Ron Paul
**Duncan Hunter, Mike Huckabee
**Sam Brownback
**Jim Gilmore
**Tom Tancredo
**Tommy Thompson

DEMOCRATS

**Barack Obama
**Hillary Clinton
**John Edwards
**Bill Richardson
**Chris Dodd
**Joe Biden
**Dennis Kucinich
**Mike Gravel