Candidates Release Third-Quarter Fundraising Totals

Oct. 2, 2007 — -- New York Sen. Hillary Clinton outpaced Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, her main rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, in fundraising July through September, adding $27 million to her campaign war chest, Clinton aides announced today.

Clinton's strong summer cash haul marks the first time she has surpassed Obama in funds raised for the primary at the close of a fundraising quarter.

Her fundraising victory -- on top of her big lead in national polls and slight polling edge in early states Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina -- will continue to feed the notion that the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 is hers to lose.

Obama, who was the top '08 presidential fundraiser for the first six months of the year can claim another impressive fundraising quarter raising $19 million for the Democratic primaries and caucuses plus an additional $1 million for the general election. In all, he's raised nearly $75 million for the nomination fight.

Obama maintained his impressive lead in total number of contributors, attracting 93,000 new donors in the third quarter, giving the senator a total of 352,000 contributors. However, Clinton attracted 100,000 new donors in the third quarter.

Neither campaign released how much money it actually had on hand, an important figure because operating a campaign for a three-month period can costs millions.

Though most of the Republican presidential hopefuls have not officially released their cash tallies for the last three months, it appears that the Democrats have once again outraised them.

Aides to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney say that he brought in $10 million and that he'll add an additional $6 million of his personal wealth to his campaign, according to reports.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has said his numbers would be about as good as his rivals.

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson was first among the Republican hopefuls to announce his third-quarter numbers. He'll report raising $8 million to go along with the $3.5 million his "testing the waters" committee raised in June, numbers that would seem to --for the time being -- end criticism that his campaign has come out of the gate without any juice.