Henry-Finland

I do not know, but it is said:

Tenek

Yes, but that's still only $85 from the person. The question is, do $200 + $300 give $750 or $950?

Zar

Go, Dean!

Zephyrus

Does anyone have the figures for overall fundraising available? As in, both in the second and first quarters of this year (and before?). How close is Dean to being first?

Bill

$750, so long as they can identify the two contributions as being from the same individual.

== Bill

Bill

It is against the law to give money to another person to have them donate it for you. Nonetheless, if you have a spouse, you can nicely ask your spouse to donate some money and it won't really be on your behalf, even if it ultimately comes out of your checking account (when the credit card bills are paid). I gave my $250 to Dean (to get to the maximum for matching funds purposes), and later this year, I will nicely ask my wife to give $250 with her credit cards. If this situation fits you, then you can maximize your giving through the use of federal matching funds.

However, again, let me emphasize that it is very illegal for you to give money to somebody in order for them to make a contribution on your behalf, so this only works if you have an agreeable mate.

==========

As I said above, however, each campaign is required to match multiple contributions from the same donor for the purposes of federal matching funds, so it doesn't matter how you give the money (one big lump or multiple small lumps) if the campaign is doing its job. The only way around this is as I've described above, and then you must be careful to not do anything illegal (like actually giving money to a third party to donate on your behalf....).

== Bill

Bill

Dean is some distance back from being first, and won't be first after the second quarter results are added to prior quarters.

For example, while John Kerry is reported to have only received five or six million in the second quarter, he will still end the quarter with about $11 million in the bank (representing prior receipts minus disbursements to date). Dean won't have anywhere near that amount of cash in the bank, even after his fundraising blitz of the past two weeks. The ABC News feature The Note gives lots of squishy details about this (this page will time out in a few hours or days, so get-em while their hot....). This Boston Globe article might be available longer. But it appears that the top tier of candidates (from some perspective, anyway) is now Kerry, Edwards, and Dean. Gephardt appears to be on the bubble (with Dean and/or Edwards) because if Dean is "in" the top tier, then either Gephardt or Edwards must necessarily be "out." The remainder of the second tier consists of Senators Graham and Lieberman, with Lieberman's stock falling rapidly.....

1. Edwards: $7.4 million + about $5 million = $12.4 million
2. Kerry: $7 million + about $5 to $6 million = $12 to $13 million
3. Dean: $2.5 million + $7.5 million = $10.1 million
4. Gephardt: maybe $4 million + about $5 million = maybe $9 million?
5. Lieberman: $3 million + about $4.5 million = about $7.5 million
6. Graham: nothing + about $2.5 million
7. Kucinich: roughly $1 million

The bottom tier of "also rans" includes the darling of the left, Dennis Kucinich, and the two blacks: Al Sharpton and Carol Mosley-Braun. None of these three is given any chance at mounting a viable campaign.

Unfortunately for Dean, he has now set himself a high bar for the next quarter. As these things go, you are expected to go up as the year goes on, not down. While one down quarter does not a candidate kill, a couple of bad quarters will usually cause donations to really dry up, as people will consider that your campaign is headed for the trash heap and it will do them no good to throw good money after bad.....

So, like the Gephardt aide was quoted as saying in the Boston Globe, ''If Dean raises $15 million on the Internet in the next quarter, then we'll reevaluate." This is typical political posturing. You try to set low expecations for your guy and impossible expectations for the other guy. I would say that if Dean raises $15 million on the Internet in the third quarter, the primary might as well be over, as he will have met even Gephardt's impossible expectations. Unfortunately for Gephardt, if Dean's following keeps growing, he just might do it!

== Bill