SarahPAC tops Romney's PAC in Ohio fundraising

Sarah Palin has collected $58K in the state while Mitt Romney has received $50K.
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With the first presidential primaries still more than half a year away, Ohioans have nevertheless donated $58,000 to SarahPAC,Gov. Palin's political action committe, and $50,000 to Mitt Romney's Free and Strong America PAC, according to Jessica Wehrman of the Middletown Journal's Washington Bureau:

Ohio, long a bellwether in presidential politics, isn’t necessarily considered a must-win for Republican primary candidates.

But the enthusiasm a candidate musters in the Buckeye state — including financial contributions — can be indicative of how they’ll do in the general election.

“Ohio’s always going to be a focus of presidential elections,” said Dave Levinthal, a spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, which collects and analyzes data about political fundraising. “If one candidate is doing particularly well there, that could to some degree foreshadow their success later.”

Ohio money is important, too.

Before presidential candidates launch formal campaigns, they raise money through leadership PACs — political action committees that politicians use for indirect sponsoring of a candidacy. The funds can be used for travel, political consulting fees or polling.

Levinthal calls those PACs a “barometer” of early support.

Later, Ohio can be expected to be a significant donor to campaign coffers.

In 2008, presidential campaign donations from Ohio totaled nearly $16 million.

Palin has long cast a shadow on the Republican field, though she has not declared her candidacy. Unless she announces she is not running, and maybe even after that, she will remain a factor.

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Gov. Romney's 2008 presidential campaign acquired a reputation as a money-raising machine, but the fact that Gov. Palin's leadership PAC raised more money than his is significant. She has not yet even announced her candidacy, while Romney is an announced candidate for the GOP presidential nomination.

- JP

Hotline: Gov. Palin outraises Mitt Romney, rivals at year's end

Governors Palin and Romney lap the field in the fundraising race
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National Journal's Hotline On Call reports that Sarah Palin led all of her potential rivals for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination in end-of-the-year fundraising, even finishing ahead of her closest competitor Mitt Romney:

Both Palin and Romney filed impressive year-end fundraising reports, due Monday at the Federal Election Commission. From Nov. 23 and Dec. 31, Palin's Sarah PAC hauled in $279,000. She finished the year with $1.3 million in her campaign account.

Palin's total is particularly striking because she outraised Romney using only a federal political action committee. Romney's series of state level PACs set up in Alabama, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire and South Carolina, detailed in a New York Times report last year, allows big donors to max out both to Romney's federal committee, the Free and Strong America PAC, and to his state organizations, which often have higher contribution limits.

That state network helped Romney outraise Palin in the previous reporting period, which covered mid-October to the end of November. He wasn't as fortunate in the final reporting period of the year. In the last five weeks of 2010, Romney's federal PAC raised almost $175,000 and his state PACs hauled in $36,000, bringing his total haul to almost $211,000 -- less than Palin's take for the same period.

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Hotline's Jeremy P. Jacobs says Gov. Palin's fundraising success shows that she has cultivated a dedicated network of contributors, most of them small donors. As for the other potential GOP candidates, none of their fundraising efforts even came close to those of the two front runners.

- JP

SarahPAC rakes in the contributions (Updated)

Over $3Nearly $5 million this year
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According to Treasurer Tim Crawford, SarahPAC raised $469,000 between Oct. 13 and Nov. 22, pushing the Sarah Palin political action committee's total contributions for the the year over the $3 million mark, reports Jay Newton-Small at TIME's political blog Swampland:

Crawford attributed the surge of funds to energy surrounding the midterm elections, Palin's endorsements and her TLC reality show “Sarah Palin's Alaska.” Her second book, America By Heart, came out Nov. 23.

The PAC spent $64,000 buying advance copies of her books, “just as we did last year” with her first book, Going Rogue, Crawford said. “They're a great fundraising tool for us.” Palin is in the midst of a two-week cross-country book tour.

Overall the PAC spent $581,000 between Oct. 13 and Nov. 22. A larger percentage than normal was spent on contributions to political candidates, $244,000, as Palin tried to help her 81-endosed candidates over the Nov. 2 finish line. Fifty-five of them won.

Crawford says all of the $469,000 was raised online or through direct mail. There have been only two SarahPAC fundraisers this year, while Mitt Romney's PAC has held nine.

Updates...

TIME has its numbers wrong. The yearly SarahPAC total is actually near the $5 million mark. (See comments)

From Ballot Box, The Hill's campaign blog:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's reported haul of some $469,000 over the past month and a half easily tops the total cash pulled in by the federal PACs of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, both rumored GOP presidential contenders in 2012.

- JP

Politico: Allen West rakes in $1.6M

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Retired Army Lt. Col. Allen West announced last week that his congressional campaign against Rep. Ron Klein (D-FL) raised $1.6 million in third-quarter campaign funds, topping his second quarter total of $1.4 million:

The Republican has emerged as a fundraising powerhouse, raking in more than $5.4 million so far for his campaign. Klein, who has yet to announce his third-quarter figures, had raised $2.5 million though Aug. 4. West’s second-quarter takeaway was the highest of any GOP non-incumbent candidate so far.

In a statement announcing his haul, West noted that “over 97 percent of our donations have come from individual contributions." His campaign said the average contribution was about $78.

West has the support of Gov. Palin and the Tea Party movement.

- JP

Mama Grizzlies Raise Real Money

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Chris Cillizza at The Fix:

Former Nevada state Assemblywoman Sharron Angle (R) raised an eye-popping $14 million between July 1 and Sept. 30 for her challenge to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D), a stunning number that far eclipses the cash-collection totals of other prominent candidates seeking Senate seats next month.

ABC's The Note:

Tea Party-backed Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-MN, raised an extraordinary $5.4 million in the third quarter, possibly smashing a congressional fundraising record for a three-month period while pushing her total fundraising haul for this election cycle to almost $10 million.

- JP

Clouthier: Why Sarah Palin Signed RNC Fundraising Letter

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At Liberty Pundits, Melissa Clouthier explains why she thinks Gov. Plain has signed a letter which is being mailed out, along with a survey, to the RNC's donor list soliciting contributions for the committee's nationwide GOTV efforty known as Victory 2010:

Sarah Palin has finally recognized her friends in D.C. They ain’t the NRSC or the NRCC, that’s for dang sure. Palin’s endorsements have been in direct odds with the NRSC’s and NRCC’s more often than not. Moreover, the NRSC and NRCC have worked overtime to undercut Michael Steele both publicly and privately and then gone to donors and asked them to donate there. This insanity is self-destructive, of course, because the RNC has the mechanism to get the vote out. The leadership in the House and Senate, though, are more about accumulating power and rewarding buddies than transforming the party. In fact, party transformation and reinvigoration, would probably hurt their incumbent arses, so what’s the motivation to change?

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In short, Sarah Palin has far more in common with Chairman Michael Steele than she has with the leadership on the Hill, and, I might add, more to gain, personally, by befriending the RNC. Should the RNC start raking in some money, it may well help some of the grassroots races the Tea Party folks so passionately care about.

This, of course, runs counter to conventional wisdom. Hating on Michael Steele has become a sport these days.

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Anyway, a partnership between Sarah Palin and Michael Steele could be a win-win. It seems they have both made a decision–really, neither one have anything to lose. Both are pretty much loathed by establishment Republicans. Why not unite her fund raising and star power with the RNC’s network and ability to organize?

Dr. Clouthier makes sense. Though we have expressed our own frustration with Steele, it's important to note that Gov. Palin has been nothing but supportive of the chairman. The pair seemed to share a mutual respect and genuine liking of one another when they appeared together at the Indiana Right to Life Dinner in April of 2009.

Another possible factor: Beyond Steele and Fred Malek, Sarah Palin doesn't have that many friends among the GOP establishment, and it stands to reason that she would want to strengthen and increase those ties. If signing on to this fundraising effort garners her support in the committee, it will only help her should she run in 2012. Plus, Gov. Palin is committed to replacing as many Democrats on Capitol Hill as possible with Republicans in November. To avoid letting defeat be yanked from the jaws of victory, it's important that the RNC raise as much money as it can to help GOP candidates. The governor realizes that, and she's showing that she can contribute more to the party's efforts than just making endorsements and spreading her own PAC money around.

This is smart politics on her part.

- JP

Bachmann: Sarah Palin's political power 'shouldn’t be undersold'

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Minneosta's Rep. Michele Bachmann has sent Gov. Sarah Palin a thank you note in the form of a Politico op-ed. In it, she debunks an attempt by some GOP Lite drinker at the anti-Palin Frum Forum to use Bachmann's fundraising success to make the amount of money raised by SarahPAC appear somehow less impressive. As with most attacks on Gov. Palin by Vichy Republicans, the meme was quickly seized upon by the left and spread to nutroots blogs. But Rep. Bachmann quickly shot down the narrative in her opinion piece:

I would like to take this opportunity and thank the author who has taken note of our successful fundraising quarter. Every donor is a blessing and symbolizes the hope I hold that we can and will get our country back on the right track.

However, I would respectfully disagree with some points when it comes to former Gov. Sarah Palin’s fundraising ability. It is important to recognize Palin’s effect on our fundraising numbers. Our successful fundraising is due, in part, to the fact that she dedicated her time and efforts to come to Minnesota in April to help my reelection campaign.

My race wasn’t the only race that Palin worked hard to raise money for. She’s lent her presence to raising money for nonprofits and political groups, as well as other candidates. Her effect on all aspects of politics shouldn’t be undersold. We are all grateful for her support of constitutional conservatives around the nation.

As to my campaign’s fundraising, I know House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has a very different plan for my life — something other than serving in the House. Pelosi is no small threat. This is why Palin graciously agreed to make me one of the first 2010 candidates for whom she campaigned.

Well said, Congresswoman. Read the full opinion piece by Rep. Bachmann here.

Related: Rep. Bachmann is taking steps to form a House Tea Party Caucus.

- JP