The Ron Paul Surge

Washington, DC (TLS). With 2.5 million dollars in cash on hand, U.S. Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) finds himself at the top of the second tier Republican candidates in terms of the amount raised in campaign funds. In terms of the amount of spendable cash, Rep. Paul has moved up into the top tier, surpassing John McCain and placing third behind Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney.

McCain has raised more money overall than Dr. Paul. Yet McCain finds himself in a precarious situation of waning support, falling poll numbers, and only 2 million in cash left in the bank due to the overly-optimistic spending of the 21 million he has raised.

As McCain finds himself on the downward slide, Dr. Paul is surging ahead. Even the mainstream media has taken notice.

The Ron Paul organization has been largely a grassroots movement right from the start. The candidate has an entire volunteer army of citizens who promote Dr. Paul through blogs, emails, text messages, and other free publicity. This has enabled the candidate to run on a shoestring budget with very little overhead.

Thus, that 2.5 million he has in the bank will not be gobbled up by staff salaries, a gruelling travel schedule, or slick campaign ads on TV.

This gives the candidate the freedom to decide where he wants to focus in terms of campaign logistics and strategy.

Admittedly, having a mere 2.5 million in the bank is in all likelihood woefully inadequate in this day and age, given the nature of the 2008 campaign and its ridiculously early primaries. That all-important deadline of January 1, 2008 is moving closer and closer.

Remember, each candidate will need 100 million bucks by Jan. 1 in order to be competitive.

Even Dr. Paul recognizes that his candidacy is a long shot. But who would have thought back in March that Ron Paul would come in fourth in terms of overall fundraising among Republicans, and third in terms of available cash on hand?

Ron Paul can now be competitive with both Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. And this has caught almost everyone by surprise.