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Ron Paul Rakes It In
By Bill | October 4, 2007 | Email This Post
Ron Paul’s web site just reported that the Congressman and Presidential hopeful has raised over $5 million in the third quarter of 2007.
That’s about equal to what John McCain is estimated to have raised in the same time period. Interesting how the same amount means such different things; for Paul, this is a major victory. For McCain, it’s the latest in a series of signs that his candidacy is waning.
Of course $5 million is far behind the $20M raised in the same quarter by Barack Obama, much less the $27 million raised by Hillary Clinton (one wonders if that has anything to do with her staunch defense of the value of lobbyists in the political process?) It also trails Mitt Romney ($10+ million) and Rudy Giuliani, but isn’t far behind Fred Thompson ($8M,) former VP candidate (and current candidate to join McCain on the bench) John Edwards ($7M) and is about the same as Bill Richardson ($5.2M.) It’s also about five times what Mike Huckabee reported for the quarter, and over double what he’s taken in for the entire year - you’ll remember Huckabee briefly shot into the spotlight after taking second in an Iowa straw poll a while back, but his moment has seemingly been lost.
Of particular note is the fact that Paul’s number is an increase of 114% over the preceding quarter, while every Democratic candidate except Clinton had a <a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/10/02/clinton-raises-27-millio_n_66741.html” target=”_blank”>”sharp drop”</a> in their take from Q2 (while Clinton was nearly flat.) On the Republican side, Romney, Giuliani, and McCain all saw large double-digit percentage drops. (It’s hard to measure the other front runner, Fred Thompson, since he wasn’t officially a candidate until September.)
What does all this mean? Much more than Dr. Paul’s strong Internet following, in my estimation. That it takes money to run a successful campaign is a political fact; another is that money follows money, which bodes well for Paul’s fund raising future. By keeping pace with the second tier of candidates (and, like it or not, that’s what Paul is right now… but the good news for his supporters is that he’s now firmly moved up from the third) and even outperforming them by some measure, Paul has partially answered the charge that his support won’t transform from passion into resources.
Next, of course, is the matter of votes.
Topics: Ron Paul |