Together, the top six 2008 presidential candidates from both parties are projected to have brought in a record total of more than $400 million and burned through at least 80 percent of it. Now, the top three Democrats and the five or so Republicans are likely to find their bank accounts short on cash just as the most expensive phase of the race begins. THE DEMOCRATS
Advisers to Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have said their primary campaigns had each raised about $100 million by the end of last year. The campaigns will not report their year-end figures until Jan. 31, but Clinton's advisers have said she came out of the New Hampshire primary with about $20 million left; Obama appears to be in a similar position.
The Clinton campaign on Friday dispatched the candidate to Los Angeles and sent her husband, former President Bill Clinton, to Washington for dinners with dozens of top fundraisers.
Obama sprinted through three California fundraisers in two days at the end of last week. But, his aides acknowledge, he is spending money faster than he is bringing it in.
Former Sen. John Edwards is in a bind of his own. He elected to accept federal matching funds that impose a spending cap of about $50 million for the entire primary campaign. He now may be limited to spending less than $20 million more while his rivals pour it on.
THE REPUBLICANS
Mitt Romney, a financier with a personal fortune of more than $250 million, is the only Republican whose campaign is not feeling the pinch: He has pumped more than $17 million of his own money into his campaign and shows no sign of slowing down.
For Sen. John McCain, the cash crunch has its advantages. His campaign has been almost broke since its near financial meltdown last summer. Now he finds himself on a more level playing field.
Rudy Giuliani, the biggest fundraiser among the GOP candidates, brought in more than $60 million last year. But he was burning through more than $4 million a month in the third quarter, had spent about $4.5 million on advertising by the middle of January and acknowledged last week that he had only $7 million left. A dozen senior staff members gave up their salaries as an emergency measure.
Advisers to Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and winner of the Iowa Republican caucuses, said he raised more than $7 million in the fourth quarter and ended the year with about $2 million in the bank -- a relatively significant sum for a campaign that had brought in just $2.3 million by the end of the third quarter and had spent at a rate of less than $300,000 a month. "At this point in time, we are all equal -- except Romney," said Ed Rollins, the Huckabee campaign national chairman.
THE NEXT CHALLENGE
The candidates are entering a far-flung battle, with more than 20 other states voting in the next three weeks. Strategists acknowledge that they will have to make tough choices, especially because both parties face the prospect of prolonged nomination fights, which could extend into the spring -- or beyond.
"It is almost like the elections that have been held so far have reset the clock and we are starting the game all over, except that the money has largely been spent and there is no time to replace it," said Steve McMahon, a veteran operative who worked for the Democratic primary campaign of Howard Dean four years ago. "It is like we have just taken a mulligan."
NEW YORK TIMES
