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Vulnerable Senate Democrats take early fundraising lead over 2012 challengersBy Cameron Joseph - 01/31/12 09:00 PM ET Six Democratic Senate incumbents facing tough reelection bids brought in big bucks in the final months of 2011. All of those vulnerable senators raised more than $1 million in the fourth quarter of last year, an early indication of strength for Democrats, who are defending control of the upper chamber. Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Jon Tester (Mont.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Bob Casey Jr. (Pa.) and Bill Nelson (Fla.) brought in between $1.1 million and $1.6 million apiece for their...

Romney outspent Gingrich 4:1 in Florida. Obama outspent McCain 6:1 in the last presidential election. Does the ability to raise and spend more money make a candidate better presidential material?

Willard Romney has already bought 2.5 million dollars' worth of ads in Florida; Newt, so far, none. Please donate to the cause, today, often, and as much as you can. There is a million-dollar moneybomb going on right now. www.newt.org/donate I also have another request, and I hope that is okay: As part of my neighborhood grassroots activity for Newt, we are planning to do a sticky-note tsunami in Florida with individual sticky-notes for different grocery items, and at the gas pumps. For example, we would like to do stickies for specific items, like a loaf of bread, a dozen...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Breaking News: January 19, 2012 ~ Precedent Case For Restraint of Fund Raising for Obama: Writ of Mandate ~ Served on the California Secretary of State. Sacramento – A legal complaint was served on Obama for America (California) and the California Secretary of State Debra Bowen late Tuesday to keep British-born Barack Obama off the ballot for the Office of the President, because he does not meet the Constitutional requirement of being a U.S. Natural Born citizen according to the Supreme Court precedent Minor v. Happersett. The legal action was filed Jan. 6 in Sacramento Superior Court...

Has the economy improved over the last three quarters?  Not for Barack Obama and the DNC.  The last quarter of fundraising in 2011 brought in a combined total of $68 million, the lowest of the three reporting quarters last year for both: President Obama’s reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee raised a combined $68 million in the last quarter of 2011, campaign manager Jim Messina said in a video e-mailed to supporters on Thursday morning.The Obama campaign raised $42 million, while the DNC raised the remaining $24 million. Those numbers track closely to third-quarter hauls of $43 million and $27 million,...

As the Republican presidential candidates traipse through the early primary and caucus states, President Obama and Vice President Biden are keeping a tight focus on a handful of swing states that are among the biggest prizes in the 2012 general election contest. Obama and Biden are keeping an official travel schedule that conveniently plunks them in battleground states that may decide the election. Biden will head to Ohio on Thursday to talk about a bread-and-butter issue for the middle class: making college more affordable. On Friday, he’ll appear in the Philadelphia suburbs for a similar speech. Winning Ohio and Pennsylvania,...

Republicans do not need to nominate a candidate anytime soon. On the contrary, if they want to beat President Obama, they should take their time before settling on a nominee. In January of 2010, Harry Reid looked like a “dead man walking” politically. Fourteen percent of Nevadans were unemployed, and he was having a hard time getting above 43 percent in most polls. There was only one way he could win: destroy his Republican opponent before he or she ever got out of the blocks. [snip] Ending the primary season early simply allows Team Obama more time to focus their...

Friend -- These Republican candidates spent in some cases more than a year -- in Mitt Romney's case seven years -- campaigning in Iowa to be the next president. But tonight, GOP voters there couldn't decisively get behind anyone. Who exactly leads the Republican race going forward isn't clear, but we do know two things: 1) The extremist Tea Party agenda won a clear victory. No matter who the Republicans nominate, we'll be running against someone who has embraced that agenda in order to win -- vowing to let Wall Street write its own rules, end Medicare as we know...

President Barack Obama’s campaign manager Jim Messina sent out an official reelection campaign video wherein he said talk of Mr. Obama having a billion dollar campaign war chest is “bullsh*t” because “we don’t take PAC money unlike our opponents. We fund this campaign in contributions of $3 or $5 or whatever you can do to help us....

President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign has raised $64,462 from Aspen area donors this year, slightly more than all of the Republican primary candidates combined, according to campaign finance information at opensecrets.org. Out of the candidates vying to win the GOP nomination, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is far outpacing his rivals with a total of $45,000 in local donations. Republican candidates Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney also have picked up some Roaring Fork Valley dollars. Combined with Perry’s cash, the GOP haul as of Dec. 18 was $63,602. Much of Perry’s local donations came from a fundraiser...

This morning the Cain campaign blasted out a fundraising e-mail that included these passages: I am excited to share a recent Rasmussen (conducted November 21-22) which shows me retaking the lead nationally with 26 percent support. I am leading Governor Romney and Speaker Gingrich by 3 and 12 percent respectively. … Please donate $25, $50, $100, $500, $1000 or more today to my campaign for President. While I lead my fellow GOP candidates in the national polls, I trail them in one important category: Money. A reader e-mailed me to point out that in fact, this particular Rasmussen poll was...

Presidential candidate Herman Cain is “in it to win it,” according to newly released financial numbers. The Herman Cain Campaign reports receiving over $9 million of financial support from Cain backers since October 1st. Twenty-five percent of these newly received contributions have come in the last ten days. The generosity of Mr. Cain’s followers has more than doubled in the past five weeks, compared to the financial gifts received in the previous two quarters combined. According to the campaign’s third quarter FEC filing, Mr. Cain’s campaign received $4.7 million from May through September 30th. The campaign has received a total...

(CNN) - Republican presidential contender Herman Cain will address the latest sexual harassment allegations against him at a Tuesday afternoon news conference, his campaign announced late Monday.

Actor Alec Baldwin has launched a war of tweets with Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos Baldwin's bombastic twitter attacks on Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos has given the Republicans a perfect foil to use to solicit campaign funds--a liberal Hollywood elite actor who wants to raise taxes. "Don't think we haven't thought of that," a Senate GOP source said when asked if Baldwin will be the focus of a fund-raising effort. Even Democrats were scratching their heads over why Baldwin took a one-day story and kept it going. "What Alec Baldwin is doing is making Dean Skelos a man of...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry may have slipped badly in recent weeks of polling, but he's doing the best of any Republican presidential candidate attracting political contributions from females. According to a new study by the Center for Responsive Politics, Perry is receiving a little more than a third of his donations (33.5%) above $200 from women. Former Sen. Rick Santorum is second with 32.3%. About 27.5% of all political contributions to Republican presidential candidates have come from women, according to the Center study.

Washington (CNN) – Herman Cain's campaign says it raised more than $400,000 on Monday, a "clear vote of confidence from his supporters," after the story broke alleging he had been accused of sexual harassment while head of the National Restaurant Association. "In the last 24 hours, the Friends of Herman Cain campaign has had the single best day of fundraising since the start of the campaign," Mark Block, Cain's chief of staff, said Tuesday night. Block said Monday's donations, both online and by phone, doubled the normal daily average in Cain's campaign to become the Republican presidential nominee.

WASHINGTON — Fewer than one in 10 of the top fundraisers who helped George W. Bush shatter records for presidential campaign money in 2000 and 2004 have donated to Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s 2012 presidential campaign, a Houston Chronicle analysis of Federal Election Commission data has found. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney holds a wide lead over other GOP presidential hopefuls in donations received from the 939 “Pioneers” and “Rangers” who raised at least $100,000 each for the Bush presidential efforts. Romney has received 148 donations totaling $351,250 from Bush’s top money people, compared with Perry’s 87 contributions worth $213,000...

Two sources within the Cain campaign are telling me that although Mr. Cain was hit with sexual harassment accusations in the 90's from two females who worked for him, when he was president of the National Restaurant Association, Monday's online campaign fundraising for the campaign was the best ever up to this point. Human Events is reporting that Cain Campaign Manager Mark Block says the campaign raised $250,000 in online donatinos in one day. However, one Cain campaign source confirmed to me that the fundraising for Monday is well over $300,000.

Heard him say it on the Laura Ingraham radio show.

The entire paid New Hampshire staff for Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has resigned... Jeff Chidester, Bachmann's former NewHampshire campaign director, confirmed the mass exodus. "The New Hampshire team has quit," he said. "We'll issue a joint statement as to our reasons why." Chidester's confirmation, made via email and voice mail to National Journal and CBS, followed a confusing day in which Bachmann insisted that reports of the staff departures were untrue. But Chidester said he left last week and informed "people that are closest to Michele." ...One of the aides who quit, Caroline Gilger, Bachmann's southern state field director,...