2011年7月2日星期六

Fund-Raising Begins Slowly for G.O.P. Candidates

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Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who has assembled the field’s most robust fund-raising operation, will report raising less than $20 million for the Republican primary during the fund-raising period ending on Thursday, an aide said. That would put Mr. Romney just slightly ahead of his own total during the same period four years ago, when he was new to presidential politics and competing against a more crowded and competitive field.

Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota will report taking in less than $5 million, said a person close to his campaign, some of which may be earmarked for a future general election campaign and unavailable to Mr. Pawlenty in his battle with other Republican candidates. Even if it were all primary money, that would be far less than any of the first-tier Republican candidates raised during the early stages of the 2008 race, and underscored the difficulty Mr. Pawlenty faces in sustaining a strong challenge to Mr. Romney and the rest of the field.

Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the former American ambassador to China in the Obama administration, entered the race so recently that he is not required to report his second-quarter fund-raising until the fall, one of his campaign aides said. But the aide said Thursday that Mr. Huntsman had raised about $4.1 million for the quarter, though a substantial portion came from his own fortune.

Representative Ron Paul of Texas, in an e-mail solicitation to supporters on Thursday morning, said his campaign had raised about $4 million and hoped to raise more by the end of the day.

“But in order for the establishment to stand up and take notice, this reporting period must show the maximum possible money raised,” Mr. Paul wrote. “Now, I don’t know if we can raise the full $5 million by tonight’s deadline — I set a high goal on purpose. But I know how committed and generous supporters like you are.”

The campaigns are not required to disclose their campaign filings publicly until July 15. At that point, they must tell the Federal Election Commission not only how much they are raising, but how much they are spending, borrowing or lending to themselves. And unofficial figures released by candidates before then do not always capture the full picture of their race for campaign dollars.

Yet those preliminary figures seem to show a Republican field still struggling to bring in dollars in a race that will pit one of them against President Obama, the most successful political fund-raiser in history. During the same quarter in 2007, in a race that started earlier and heated up more quickly, the top 10 Republican candidates had raised a total of about $51 million.

Aides to Mr. Obama declined to release a preliminary figure ahead of the legal reporting deadline. But the campaign had previously set a quarterly goal of $60 million in combined funds raised for Mr. Obama’s re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee. While checks to the campaign are limited to $5,000 per individual — $2,500 each for the primary season and the general election — donors to the party committee can give as much as $30,800 each.

The Romney aide, speaking on condition of anonymity because the campaign had not finalized its figures, said that Mr. Romney’s expected total did not include any of the candidate’s own money and that it was consistent with goals the campaign had set early on.

“We are focused on growing the base of donors that we can count on in the primary,” the aide said.

A low haul for Mr. Pawlenty could prove more immediately dangerous to the candidate: He does not have a major personal fortune to fall back on in a pinch, as Mr. Huntsman and Mr. Romney do, and he cannot take for granted the kind of national fund-raising network that Mr. Romney built for himself in 2008. Moreover, unlike Mr. Romney, Mr. Pawlenty has committed to entering the Republican straw poll in Iowa this August, an expensive proposition for any candidate.

For Newt Gingrich, whose campaign has been on life support since his top aides resigned en masse in June, a poor fund-raising total could well prove fatal, and a good one revitalizing. An e-mail sent to supporters on Thursday by Joe DeSantis, Mr. Gingrich’s spokesman, seemed to acknowledge the stakes.

“In just a few hours, the books will close on Newt 2012’s first fund-raising quarter,” Mr. DeSantis wrote. “The results of this quarter will be released publicly in a few days. This report will play a major role in shaping the news narrative about the strength of Newt’s campaign.”

Kitty Bennett, Derek Willis and Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting.


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