Mitt Romney has only a fraction of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s name recognition and poll numbers, yet he raised almost as much money as she did in the all-important first quarter.
Romney led the Republican field by raking in $23 million, or nearly 90 percent of the $26 million that Clinton raised during the first three months of this year.
Given Clinton’s longtime lead in Democraticpolls and the fact Romney has lagged far behind Rudy Giuliani and John McCain in GOP polls, the former Massachusetts governor was declared the “biggest winner” of the first-quarter fundraising sweepstakes by National Journal’s “Hotline” political report.
Charles Cook, publisher of the Cook Political Report, said there are now “two distinct tiers” of candidates, at least when it comes to fundraising. The top tier, of $23 million to $26 million, is occupied by Clinton and Romney, while the second tier, of $12 million to $15 million, is home to Giuliani, McCain and Democrat John Edwards.
Giuliani reported raising $15 million, Edwards $14 million and McCain $12.5 million. McCain’s campaign acknowledged that it had “hoped to do better.”
Democratic candidate Barack Obama did not release an estimate of his fundraising totals, giving rise to speculation that he may have amassed enough to throw a scare into Clinton, the Democratic front-runner.
Romney spokesman Kevin Madden cautioned that his boss is “far from being the frontrunner” in the GOP.
“These totals show us that we may be the best-run campaign with the most potential,” he said. “And it’s not like we have accomplished this without our share of knocks.
“All of the other campaigns,” he added, “have targeted us and taken aim at us since they view Governor Romney’s record as the toughest one to beat. I expect more of the same, actually, and we will be prepared for it.”
