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The 2008 race is on, and so is the hunt for dollars

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published February 9, 2007

WASHINGTON - In one month, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney brought in a hefty $1.4-million-plus from donors to his Web site.

In one day, he secured a jaw-dropping $6.5-million in contributions and pledges from others - and he still has at least a dozen fundraisers planned before March 31.

That's the end of the first financial quarter of 2007 - and the first big test of who is a viable White House candidate.

"There's more pressure than ever before to raise money early," said Anthony Corrado of Colby College in Maine. Corrado specializes in presidential elections and campaign finance.

Top-tier candidates like Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton are working to make good on the widely held belief that they can raise $80-million to $100-million this year alone.

Other leading candidates - Romney and Rudy Giuliani on the right, and Sen. Barack Obama and John Edwards on the left - are out to prove they can compete with the big dogs by posting equally large numbers.

Aside from Romney, of the other top-tier candidates:

- McCain, a senator from Arizona, has added high-profile names to the fundraising network in place from his failed 2000 presidential bid. His team includes Lewis M. Eisenberg, a Bush backer in 2004 and former partner at Goldman Sachs who founded the Granite Capital International Group.

- Giuliani, the former Republican mayor of New York City, has assembled a roster of corporate executives to help him raise money - relationships he formed in part through his lucrative business dealings. They include T. Boone Pickens, a billionaire oil tycoon from Texas who was a top Bush fundraiser. Giuliani brought in $1.4-million in the first few weeks of his campaign and has $2-million left from an aborted Senate bid in 2000.

- Clinton, a senator from New York, hopes to raise at least $75-million this year. Her network includes many fundraisers from former President Bill Clinton's campaigns. On board is Haim Saban, a Hollywood studio investor and creator of the Power Rangers.

- Obama, a first-term Democratic senator from Illinois, is not accepting donations from political action committees and lobbyists. Jeffrey Katzenberg, a founder of the DreamWorks movie studio, is among his backers.

- Edwards, a former Democratic senator from North Carolina, is building on the remnants of a fundraising network from his unsuccessful 2004 presidential run, although it's unclear whether he retains the lock on trial lawyers' money he once had. Like Obama, he is not accepting donations from political action committees and lobbyists.

Among the long-shot candidates, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who chairs the Senate Banking Committee but barely rates a blip in the polls, raked in $3.2-million in the final three months of 2006, mostly from Wall Street, and reported $5-million cash on hand.

"We're entering a brave new world of presidential fundraising," said Michael Toner, of the Federal Election Commission. He said a perfect storm of conditions exist that have caused candidates to seek more money faster than ever.

The presidential campaign itself has started far earlier than before. With more than two dozen people running or considering a bid, fundraising has a way of winnowing out a crowded field. Also, since none of the major candidates are expected to accept public financing for the nomination race, they can ignore spending caps in early primary and caucus states - encouraging them to raise even more money.

[Last modified February 9, 2007, 00:54:25]