Take Fred Thompson, the Republican who has arguably enjoyed the greatest GOP buzz over the last few months. A Thompson campaign official, who declined to be named because numbers have not been released officially, tells Newsweek that the former Tennessee senator will report more than $8 million in receipts, not including the $3.5 million he raised for his so-called “testing the waters” committee. In any other year, $11 million to $12 million over three months would be a respectable haul. But that’s not much more than John McCain reported raising in the last quarter, and we all remember the bad reviews he got. Like other Republicans, Thompson’s money doesn’t even come close to the numbers posted by Democrats like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton–both of whom raised more than $20 million during their first three months of shaking the money tree.
The important number for Thompson, which we haven’t seen yet, is how much cash he has in the bank–and how competitive that makes him with opponents like Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. While we haven’t seen numbers yet, Giuliani fired his finance director last week, prompting plenty of speculation that his numbers won’t be so good. Meanwhile, everyone is looking to see how much of his own money Romney has plunked down. The former Massachusetts governor has been the biggest contributor to his own campaign, chipping in almost $9 million so far, and Romney has confirmed he’s written another check to his campaign this quarter–though we’ll have to wait to see how much. A few numbers to look for: How much did Romney spend to win the Ames Straw Poll last August? And has his rate of contributions–not including the checks he’s written himself–picked up or slowed down in recent months?
Another thing to look for: Has McCain stabilized his campaign financially? The Arizona senator has enjoyed a bit of a bump in the polls lately, but people will be looking to see if he’s been able to raise the money necessary to keep his campaign alive. Ditto for the rest of the field, including Mike Huckabee, who has seen his crowds get bigger on the heels of his second place finish at Ames. Huckabee last week hinted that his numbers won’t be as high as his opponents, but that his take will be enough for him to compete. But with voters in Iowa prepared to caucus perhaps before the end of the year, its gets harder by the day for longshot candidates like Huckabee to make their case for victory; whoever wins the GOP primary will surely face one of the best-financed Democratic nominees in years.
