Romney Raises $23 Million in 2008 White House Bid, Bested Only By Hillary Clinton

[Terri]

Fox News

WASHINGTON — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who's running third in GOP polls for the presidential nomination, announced Monday that he raised $23 million toward his White House bid in the first quarter of this year.

That puts him well ahead of Republican front-runners Rudy Giuliani, who reported raising $15 million during that time period, and Sen. John McCain, whose campaign said he earned $12.5 million.

Romney's numbers are also on par with Democratic White House hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton, whose campaign said Sunday she had shattered all previous records by raising $26 million from Jan. 20 to March 31, 2007.

More (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,263121,00.htm l)

[eliot21]

Actually, he may have beat Hillary Clinton too, since not only did Clinton only raise $26 million this quarter (not the $36 million reported), but she is conflating her general and primary election tallies.

If you compare only primary election receipts, even taking into account Romney's $2m loan to himself, there is the possibility that he beat Clinton as well.

Go Romney! I hope he's able to broaden his donor base going forward though. Much of his fundraising was from people giving the maximum. Next quarter will see if he's able to branch out. I think he will be able to do it, especially thanks to the new Students for Romney program that gives college students commission on the money they raise, if they raise at least $1000 each. That was a really good idea. It's good, fresh ideas like that that make me like Romney.

Romney's fate will be determined largely by when/if Fred Thompson enters. If Thompson holds off for too long, he might get intimidated by Romney's receipts and decide not to go for it. No, you can't buy support, but you can buy publicity, and really the only reason Romney is doing poorly in the polls is lack of publicity. The flip-flopping charges have done more to harm his momentum in getting publicity, than in harming his overall appeal once people learn about him.

Of course that's just an assertion, but that's how I see it :).

[eliot21]

PS, I got a kick out of the news that McCain is "shaking up" his campaign because of his bad fundraising and polling performances. I don't see how he can blame his campaign managers for this one, unless he's actually letting them make decisions like not going to CPAC and then announcing his candidacy on Letterman the next day, or not attending the Club for Growth winter meeting, or the Heritage Foundation retreat, or the National Review summit...

And if his advisers are making such decisions, then he's to blame for finding those to be acceptable decisions.

I think it's all downhill from here for McCain. The only problem is that it doesn't seem like the field is coalescing around another candidate, which is important for the party to be strong going into next year.

Once the Romney-Thompson split gets resolved one way or the other, and Giuliani falls a bit more in the polls, you might see a consensus develop.