Cash Is Key in Race for '08

Feb. 24, 2007 — -- For the candidates hoping to live in the White House after the 2008 election, cash has become an increasingly critical part of their campaigns.

In 2000, President George Bush broke all records by turning down public funding and raising $100 million in the primary alone. This time, campaign watchers say candidates will need that much by the end of 2007 just to be taken seriously.

Iowa Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack became an early casualty of the 2008 presidential race on Friday when he dropped out of the race due to lack of funds.

"I came up against something that, for the first time in my life, hard work and effort couldn't overcome," Vilsack said Friday. "It is money and only money. That is the reason we are leaving today."

Vilsack made it onto "The Tonight Show," where the audience gave his anti-war pitch a big hand, but the people did not write him big checks.

The 2008 race for the White House is certain to be the most expensive presidential campaign in history.

According to Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report, during the entire cycle candidates will spend $2 or $3 billion.

Compare that to the $6.6 million Dwight Eisenhower spent to win in 1952, the last time there was no incumbent on the ticket.

Vilsack raised just over $1 million last year. That's not even a good fundraising day in some campaigns.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., netted $1.3 million in one night at a Hollywood fundraiser this week.

Republican former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney raised $6.5 million on Jan. 8.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., wants her top fundraisers to bring in $1 million dollars each.

"They're like these large planets that have already blotted out the sun for those second- and third-tier candidates who are hoping to get enough light … to take off," Rothenberg said.

One of the biggest Republican fundraisers is Sen. John McCain, who tried to curb campaign spending with the McCain-Feingold law in 2002, but spending has only gone up. The Republican and Democratic nominees alone are expected to spend a total of $1 billion dollars.