2008 Hopefuls

I know that first quarter fundraising totals are old news, but I wanted to look at it from a different angle. I’ll try and finish second quarter numbers as soon as possible and post some overall insights using the same approach. I took a “winner take all” approach to the numbers and assigned each state the appropriate number of electoral votes that pertain to that state. The candidate that wins the fundraising battle receives the electoral votes for that state. Using this method here is how the candidates rank:

Democrats:

1. Hillary Clinton - 217 ($26,041,109)
2. John Edwards - 170 ($14,021,504)
3. Barack Obama - 123 ($25,661,047)
4. Bill Richardson - 15 ($6,236,557)
Republicans:

1. Mitt Romney - 299 ($20,737,149)
2. Rudy Giuliani - 146 ($14,731,897)
3. John McCain - 71 ($12,992,655)
4. Tommy Thompson - 10 ($315,036)
Overall:

1. Democrats - 315 ($78,470,733)
2. Republicans - 223 ($53,204,874)
A couple of things that I found very interesting were that although Romney is accused of being able to only be able to raise money in Utah, he has been able to raise money in enough states to dominate the other Republican candidates. The other major takeaway for me was despite the closeness in overall fundraising totals between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Clinton’s appeal reaches deeper and broader than most people have given her credit for.

The second quarter presidential fundraising totals will provide an interesting look into the dramatic fall of both John Edwards and John McCain.

Filed under: Democrats, Republicans, Romney, McCain, Giuliani, Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Polls, Brownback, Huckabee, Paul, Tancredo, Biden, Dodd, Kucinich, Richardson, Vilsack, Hunter, F.Thompson