Paul Turns
Heads with Campaign Donations
October 4, 2007
By Margaret Talev
The Seattle Times
WASHINGTON — The cult of Ron Paul, 72, seems to
be picking up lots of new members — and some serious
money.
The Republican presidential candidate — a conservative-libertarian
Texas congressman whose anti-war fundamentalism has attracted
a broad following among young people and Internet buzz
— has been widely considered a longshot, with his
campaign running on a shoestring budget and not much more
than gumption.
Or so it appeared until Wednesday, when Paul's team said
it had raised about $5.1 million from July through September.
His total is more than $8 million for this year.
That may seem like spare change compared with Democrat
Hillary Clinton's $27 million third-quarter take, but
it puts Paul in the range of several other contenders:
- Democrat Bill Richardson and Republican John McCain
estimated they each had raised about as much as Paul
did for the quarter.
- Democrat John Edwards reported raising about $7 million.
- Republican Fred Thompson is expected to report that
he raised about $8 million — and he's running
second to Rudy Giuliani in national polls.
- Democrats Joseph Biden and Chris Dodd combined were
expected to have less cash to show for the reporting
period than Paul has raised.
- Republican Mike Huckabee was expected to report raising
about $1 million for the quarter, bringing his total
for the year to about $2.3 million.
"Here's a guy nobody is paying attention to, and
he's raising real money," said a stunned Tony Fabrizio,
a Republican strategist unaffiliated in the presidential
contest.
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