At the end of Q3 2007, Republican presidential candidates were 65.9M behind their Democratic counterparts in the total fund-raising race, with a total take of 175.1M compared to 241.0M on the other side. By the end of Q4, there was still a significant gap between the two parties, but the Republicans managed to close the difference to within 52.6M, according to data just released by the Federal Election Commission.
Hillary Clinton (D-NY) remained at the front of the pack with 115.6M, ahead of Barack Obama (D-IL), who had bankrolled 102.2M so far. John Edwards (D-NC), who joined the majority of one-time candidates on the sidelines last week, was a distant third with 43.9M.
On the Republican side, Mitt Romney (R-MA) has amassed 88.5M thus far (much of it — we hear well over 30M — on loan from himself), besting the recently departed Rudy Giuliani (R-NY) with 60.9M and third place John McCain (R-AZ) with 41.1M. Despite his lower ranking on the fund-raising chart, most observers are awarding the former Commerce Committee Chairman the front-runner label these days after back-to-back victories in South Carolina and Florida.
The heat-seeker remains Ron Paul (R-TX), who more than tripled his income during Q4, although to no apparent avail in terms of votes cast nor poll preferences cited.
| Democrats | 3/31/07 | 6/30/07 | 9/30/2007 | 12/31/2007 |
| Clinton (D-NY) | $36.0M | $62.5M | $89.0M | $115.6M |
| Obama (D-IL) | $25.7M | $58.6M | $79.4M | $102.2M |
| *Edwards (D-NC) | $14.0M | $23.0M | $30.1M | $43.9M |
| *Richardson (D-NM) | $6.2M | $13.2M | $18.5M | $23.6M |
| *Dodd (D-CT) | $8.8M | $12.1M | $13.6M | $16.5M |
| *Biden (D-DE) | $4.0M | $6.4M | $8.1M | $11.3M |
| *Kucinich (D-OH) | $0.4M | $1.1M | $2.1M | $3.9M |
| Gravel (D-AK) | $0.1M | $0.2M | $0.2M | $0.4M |
| Dem. Total | $95.2M | $177.2M | $241.0M | $317.3M |
| Republicans | 3/31/2007 | 6/30/2007 | 9/30/2007 | 12/31/2007 |
| Romney (R-MA) | $23.1M | $43.5M | $61.6M | $88.5M |
| *Giuliani (R-NY) | $18.0M | $35.4M | $46.7M | $60.9M |
| McCain (R-AZ) | $14.7M | $25.9M | $31.4M | $41.1M |
| Paul (R-TX) | $0.6M | $3.0M | $8.2M | $28.1M |
| *FThompson (R-TN) | n/a | n/a | $12.7M | $21.6M |
| Huckabee (R-AR) | $0.5M | $1.3M | $2.3M | $9.0M |
| *Tancredo (R-CO) | $1.3M | $2.8M | $3.5M | $6.2M |
| *Brownback (R-KS) | $1.8M | $3.3M | $4.1M | $4.2M |
| *Hunter (R-CA) | $0.5M | $1.3M | $1.9M | $2.5M |
| *T.Thompson (R-WI) | $0.4M | $0.9M | $1.1M | $1.2M |
| *Cox (R-IL) | $0.8M | $0.9M | $1.0M | $1.1M |
| *Gilmore (R-VA) | $0.2M | $0.4M | $0.4M | $0.4M |
| Rep. Total | $62.0M | $118.7M | $175.1M | $264.7M |
Source: Federal Election Commission
* no longer an active candidate
