LAWFUEL – The Legal Newswire – According to this article at Wired, Senator Fred Thompson’s campaign has said that it has raised some $8 million dollars in the third quarter of the first campaign year. In the Democratic camp, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton do much better, but not as good as they did in the second quarter: according to the article, which cites Bloomberg News, both are expected to have raised some $20 million.
Congressman Ron Paul, meanwhile, will have most likely raised well over $3 million in this quarter. The final sprint resulted in $1.2 million – that’s more than million raised online in just one week time. Before this result, the campaign was already insinuating that it had raised more in the third than in the second quarter ($2.4 million). As such, it seems quite fair to assume that the Congressman from Texas has raised some $3.5 million, which is not bad considering his status as an outsider with virtually no chance of winning the nomination according to experts.
As written at this blog a couple of days ago, though, Paul’s impact will not be directly measurable: he’ll inspire many people and has already given a voice to the libertarians within the Republican Party and outside it. These individuals have now tasted what it’s like to be involved in a campaign, and they believe that they can sell their message. The fact that Paul is able to raise a significant amount of money, in turn, will make other Republicans think; if they can appeal – a bit – to the libertarians ike Ron Paul did and still does, it will benefit them financially.
Thompson’s $8 million is, to this observer at least, quite a disappointment. When the former Senator entered the race, he instantly became a frontrunner. As noted earlier, however, support for him isn’t as passionate as it is for some others; for people to give, they’ve got to be passionate about you and believe in what you’re doing. One gets the impression that support for Thompson – at this moment – isn’t as much out of conviction as it is out of lack of other ‘good and sound conservative choices.’
It’ll be interesting to see what Obama and Clinton have raised exactly. Will the two Democratic frontrunners beat their Republican opponents once again, or will certain Republicans have closed the gap? In this regard, I’m thinking about Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain. Although Giuliani’s numbers were up in the second quarter, he fired his head fundraiser recently, which doesn’t promise much good news. Romney has been the number one Republican fundraiser from the get-go, John McCain’s entire campaign has been disappointing – although it must be said that if he’s able to spend less, while continuing to raise as much as he did, life looks remarkably more sunny for the Senator from Arizona.
