Bush Raises More Money Than All 9 Challengers: Weak Performance of Gephardt Is a Surprise
So much for the importance of ideas. It's all about the money.
President Bush raised more money in the past three months than all nine of his Democratic rivals combined, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) yesterday, opening up a huge financial advantage that is likely to continue throughout the 2004 election campaign....
Overall, Bush raised $34.4 million from 105,000 donors during the quarter and, after spending $2.3 million getting his reelection committee underway, emerged with $32.7 million in the bank, including about $671,000 transferred from his 2000 campaign.
The nine Democrats jointly raised about $31 million during the same period, underscoring the enormous gap between the money Bush will have available to spend promoting his candidacy between now and his national convention next summer and what the eventual Democratic nominee will have during that same period. Bush will have the capacity to wage a massive media campaign at a time when the Democrats will be either focused on one another or nearly out of money.
This is hardly a new phenomenon, of course, but it is an indictment of the current state of our political system. At a time when Americans desperately need to understand how candidates plan to address the problems facing this country, the candidates are focusing on making money.
