Democratic candidates continue to lead Republicans in the amount of campaign donations they are receiving. This is true for not only the presidential candidates, but also for the House and Senate candidates.
In the past few years, Republicans have outraised Democrats pretty easily, but not this campaign season. I think that's a measure of just how dissatisfied the American people are with how the Republicans have governed. Here's the breakdown for House, Senate and presidential candidates:
HOUSE CANDIDATES
Democrats.......$98,147,299
Republicans.....$66,334,161
SENATE CANDIDATES
Democrats.......$40,433,238
Republicans.....$33,054,568
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES
Democrats.......$244,404,140
Republicans.....$175,336,955
When you break down the presidential race into what each candidate has received, the lead by Democrats looks even more significant. Both of the top two Democrats have raised quite a bit more than any of the Republican candidates, and five of the top eight fundraisers are Democrats. Here are the total donations for the presidential candidates:
Clinton........$90,935,788
Obama........$80,256,427
Romney.......$62,829,069
Giuliani.......$47,253,521
McCain........$32,124,785
Edwards......$30,329,152
Richardson...$18,699,937
Dodd..........$13,598,152
Thompson....$12,828,111
Paul...........$8,268,453
Biden.........$8,215,739
Brownback...$4,235,333
Tancredo.....$3,538,244
Huckabee....$2,345,798
Kucinich......$2,130,200
Hunter........$1,890,873
Gravel........$238,745
Keyes.........$22,768
Wouldn't it be wonderful if the success of presidential candidates were based on their ideas rather than how much money they can raise?
ReplyDeleteLooking at the list, I noticed some interesting anomalies. For instance, Sam Brownback raised about twice as much as Mike Huckabee, yet Brownback has dropped out of the race and Huckabee is on the verge of breaking into the so-called "top-tier" among GOP candidates. Fred Thompson has raised six times as much as Huckabee, but his candidacy seems to be fizzling.
A more interesting (albeit self-serving) gauge of political viability is the recent Zogby Poll of candidate negatives ("Whom would you NEVER vote for for President of the U.S.?).
Who fared the best? For the Republicans, it was Mike Huckabee (my personal favorite) and for the Democrats, the least objectionable was Bill Richardson (jobsanger's pick).
Personally, I would love to see a Huckabee v. Richardson presidential election.
I wouldn't mind seeing that match-up myself.
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