Giuliani Reports Skyscraping Early Money Total for White House Bid

Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has led the long list of 2008 Republican presidential contenders in early preference polls — and his perceived position as the front-runner, at least for now, was not contradicted by his recent campaign finance report, which shows he has already built a sizable treasury.

Giuliani’s campaign reported total first-quarter receipts of $16.6 million, which included a $1.85 million transfer from the presidential “exploratory” committee he established last November.

With total receipts of $18 million for his campaign to date, Giuliani leads all but three of the current crop of White House hopefuls — Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, and Republican Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor — in overall campaign receipts.

Giuliani ended the quarter with $11.9 million left to spend. All but about $1.1 million of Giuliani’s funds were raised for the nominating campaign, with the rest for possible use in the general election should he win the nomination.

Giuliani’s report includes numerous donations that highlight his ties to New York, the nation’s most populous city, which Giuliani headed as mayor from 1993 through 2001.

As an example, Giuliani received contributions from about 30 employees of Lehman Brothers, the large financial services firm that is headquartered in New York.

Giuliani is a longtime fan of baseball’s New York Yankees, who happened to win four World Series titles during his eight years as mayor. Several team executives, including principal owner George Steinbrenner, gave to Giuliani’s presidential campaign.

This profile of Giuliani’s report is the latest in a CQPolitics.com series that is analyzing the first-quarter campaign finance filings of all 19 Democratic and Republican candidates.

Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani

• Receipts, Jan. 1 to March 31: $16.6 million

• Receipts to date: $18 million

• Expenditures, Jan. 1 to March 31: $5.7 million

• Expenditures to date: $6.1 million

• Cash-on-hand, March 31: $11.9 million

• Debts, March 31: $89,000

Notable individual donors (who are allowed to contribute $2,300 to a candidate for a primary campaign and $2,300 for a general election campaign)

• John F. Antioco, chairman and chief executive officer of Blockbuster: $2,300

• Richard D. Beckman, president of Conde Nast Media Group: $2,300

• Brian Cashman, general manager of the New York Yankees baseball team: $2,300

• Miguel Estrada, a partner at the firm Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher and an unsuccessful nominee for a federal judgeship in 2003: $2,300

• Alan D. Feld, a senior executive partner at the firm Akin Gump: $2,300

• John Grant, professional staff member for the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee: $250

• Keith Hernandez, sports broadcaster and a former professional baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Mets and Cleveland Indians: $1,000

• Michael D. Hess, a founding partner and senior managing director of Giuliani Partners LLC and Giuliani’s former corporation counsel during his mayoral tenure: $4,600

• John O’Hurley, actor: $4,600

• Susan Molinari, chairman and chief executive officer of The Washington Group and a former House member from New York (1990-97): $1,900 (Molinari also gave Giuliani’s campaign $2,100 in late 2006, bringing her contributions to $4,000)

• Theodore B. Olson, partner at Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher and a former U.S. solicitor general: $2,500 (Olson also gave Giuliani’s campaign $2,100 in late 2006, bringing his contributions to the maximum of $4,600)

• Adam Sandler, actor: $2,100

• Charles R. Schwab, chairman and chief executive officer of Charles Schwab Co.: $2,300

• Ben Stein, an author and actor who served as an aide to presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald Ford: $750

• George Steinbrenner, principal owner of the New York Yankees: $4,600

• Chad Sweet, chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security: $4,600

• James S. Turley, chairman and chief executive officer of Ernst & Young: $2,100

Candidate committees and political action committees (PACs)

One of Giuliani’s strongest supporters in Congress is California Republican Rep. David Dreier, who donated $2,300 through his House campaign committee and another $5,000 through another political committee, American Success PAC.

Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Charlie Dent, who represents the 15th District in and around Allentown and Bethlehem, donated $2,300 through his political committee, Dedicated to Establishing National Teamwork PAC, which forms an acronym of the congressman’s last name.

Among his political supporters at a more grassroots level is West Virginia state Sen. Vic Sprouse, whose campaign committee gave Giuliani’s campaign a $1,000 contribution.

Notable expenses

Giuliani’s campaign reported spending $897,000 on payroll to 82 individuals. Other expenses included $225,000 on postage — including a payment of $167,000 to the Austin, Texas-based firm Olsen & Shuvalov. Giuliani’s campaign also spent more than $116,000 on catering.

>>>>>Rudy has said he is against amnesty.... He is a tax cutter and fiscally conservative in all areas.

That is delusional thinking.

Fact. Rudy has said on many occasions that illegals should be "regularized". That is a code for amnesty. Rudy may have reversed the Dinkins income tax increases, which gave New Yawkers a paltry $200 million tax cut, but he did nothing to change the tax&spend/borrow&spend mindset of NYCITY`s liberal socialist government.

So you can spin, obfuscate and shill for Giuliani, give him all the political cover you can muster. You can deny his life long support for liberal issues and liberal causes. The fact remains Rudy is no conservative, never has been and never will be. His final fiscal record as mayor might impress moderates, centrists and liberals, but for conservatives it was abysmal. The Manhattan Institute gave a critique of that final record as mayor, and it was a devastating testament to his liberalism. It clearly spells out in no uncertain terms Rudy`s final fiscal record of big deficits ($2.0 billion), huge debts ($42 billion), spendthrift policies and out of control hiring practices that made liberal organs like the NEA and AFT overjoyed.

"The scope of government was not reduced at all. ..... money saved on social services has only helped to subsidize big increases in other categories. Today the array of social services sponsored and partially funded by the city—from day care to virtually guaranteed housing—is as wide as ever."

"In the final analysis, Mayor Giuliani sought to make the city deliver services more efficiently—not to make the city deliver fewer services. ..... the city instead failed to reduce spending."

"Even with the tax cuts of the last several years, New York remains by far the most heavily taxed big city in the country."

Well, gee, maybe I should’ve had somrhing like this posted on our home page for the last several years:

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