GOP 3rd Quarter Fundraising Totals

Republican Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani continued to lead the pack in fundraising, bringing in $11 million during the 3rd quarter.

Mitt Romney comes in at a close 2nd with $10 million dollars raised. But campaign sources disclosed that Romney put over $8 million of his own money into his campaign, meaning that he actually raised less than $2 million during the third quarter.

This is precisely why The Liberty Sphere has maintained that Romney's campaign is largely fluff and that his money carefully conceals the lack of support the candidate has been able to garner throughout the country.

Fred Thompson's 3rd quarter campaign earnings were much better than expected and topped earlier reports. The Thompson campaign reports that the candidate raised over 9 million during the 3rd quarter, the vast majority of that coming in during the month of September.

John McCain's totals for the 3rd quarter stand at $5 million--a vast improvement over projections. This would tend to support the candidate's contention that his campaign is experiencing a turn-around.

Ron Paul also raised $5 million during the 3rd quarter--his best showing to date. Yet Mr. Paul comes out ahead of McCain due to the fact that McCain was $2 million in the red, meaning that he has only $3 million to spend. Mr. Paul has most if not all of his $5 million to spend.

The rest of the Republican field of candidates raised much less than the top 5.

Thus, the Liberty Sphere offers an assessment of the success of the top 5 candidates based upon 2 factors--the total funds raised from the citizens and the amount of available cash on hand to spend.

Given these 2 important factors there are only 2 GOP candidates who approach the 4th quarter from a position of strength as compared to the rest of the field. Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson are in the best financial shape of all. Giuliani is way out in front in terms of available cash to spend, and Thompson comes in 2nd with roughly 8 million in available cash.

Mitt Romney's position in the field of candidates is a bit difficult to assess. From month to month it has been hard to track exactly how much of his campaign cash came from donors and how much he spent of his own money. The candidate has deep pockets, no doubt, and he is thus a major force with which to be reckoned. But it would be a mistake to place too much credence in Romney's ability to spend.

Thus, Ron Paul in our view comes in third with a solid showing of 5 million. His ability to run a frugal campaign relying on an army of Internet supporters has enabled the candidate to keep most of the money he has raised. He is in fairly good shape, and it would be a mistake to count him out.

John McCain is still a viable candidate. The Liberty Sphere had all but given up on his campaign for dead a couple of months ago. But the candidate has shown resilience and determination, even in the face of overwhelming odds.

McCain has also said he has heard the outcry of the citizens against his amnesty immigration reform bill, and he has thus changed his views to match those of the citizens who want our borders secure and illegal immigration stopped. We would still like to hear him say more about the glaring mistake of the McCain-Feingold act against free speech. If he comes clean about that, he could well be a come-from-behind candidate.

It certainly helped McCain to appear at the NRA and remind the nation that he has been a longtime supporter of 2nd Amendment rights. The NRA has given him fairly good marks through the years, despite the GOA's rating of 'F.' It is to be remembered, however, that the GOA's criteria for rating politicians is very strict, much more so than the NRA's.

While McCain is certainly not our 1st choice, not even our 2nd, 3rd, or 4th choice, he is someone we could see ourselves supporting against Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, or for that matter ANY of the Democratic candidates.

But for now, we are pleased to see that Thompson is coming on strong, and we fully expect his fundraising to show even more success during the 4th quarter.