Ron Paul Moves Into Top Tier
Already leading the Republican field in straw poll victories, crowd sizes, and volunteer activism, Ron Paul cemented his status as a top tier contender with the announcement of the official third quarter fundraising and cash-on-hand reports. Perhaps not coincidentally, he hit 5% in the Gallup national poll for the first time as well.
Ron Paul actually topped John McCain for third quarter contributions intended for the primaries, since McCain was also accepting funds for an increasingly unlikely general election campaign. Ron Paul also single-handedly out-raised the combined total of the entire second tier, and topped each of their individual totals for the quarter in the last week of September. At this writing, he was already closing in on his first million dollars of the fourth quarter as well, with $997,000 in donations.
Romney's cash on hand should be taken with a grain of salt -- his campaign shows $17.4 million in debts, and would have been underwater without his personal loans to himself. McCain's report also showed substantial debts of $1.7 million, further increasing Paul's advantage in net primary cash on hand.
Sources: FEC and Associated Press reports
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Third quarter contributions:
Giuliani -- $11.5M
Romney -- $9.8M
Thompson -- $9.3M
McCain -- $5.7M
Paul -- $5.2M
Huckabee -- $1.0M
Brownback -- $0.8M
Tancredo -- $0.8M
Hunter -- $0.5M
Ron Paul actually topped John McCain for third quarter contributions intended for the primaries, since McCain was also accepting funds for an increasingly unlikely general election campaign. Ron Paul also single-handedly out-raised the combined total of the entire second tier, and topped each of their individual totals for the quarter in the last week of September. At this writing, he was already closing in on his first million dollars of the fourth quarter as well, with $997,000 in donations.
Cash on hand, 9/30/07
Giuliani -- $16.7M
Romney -- $9.2M
Thompson -- $7.1M
Paul -- $5.4M
McCain -- $3.5M
Huckabee -- $0.7M
Hunter -- $0.1M
Tancredo -- $0.1M
Brownback -- $0.1M
Romney's cash on hand should be taken with a grain of salt -- his campaign shows $17.4 million in debts, and would have been underwater without his personal loans to himself. McCain's report also showed substantial debts of $1.7 million, further increasing Paul's advantage in net primary cash on hand.
Sources: FEC and Associated Press reports
