Kerry Leads Democratic Hopefuls in Funds Raised
washingtonpost.com
By Thomas B. Edsall and Sarah Cohen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 16, 2003; Page A07
Of all the Democratic presidential primary contestants, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) has by far the most money in the bank, $8.1 million, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission yesterday.
His closest competitor is Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), with $5.74 million. Edwards raised the most money during the past quarter, $7.4 million, and his support among trial lawyers was crucial. Edwards, a trial lawyer himself, raised 55 percent of his money from lawyers. Edwards raised $1 million in Texas and $305,000 in Alabama, two states with large and active trial lawyer constituencies.
Edwards did far better than any of the candidates in the South, which provided him with almost half of his total.
In cash on hand, Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.) was in third place, with $4.95 million. Well behind these campaigns were those of former Vermont governor Howard Dean, with $2.1 million, and Sen. Joseph I . Lieberman (Conn.), with $1.78 million.
Sen. Bob Graham (Fla.), who formed his campaign committee in late February, reported raising $1.1 million, almost 90 percent of it from Florida. Graham was by far the most frugal of all the major candidates, spending $12,482.
Kerry and Gephardt benefited heavily from their ability to transfer money from their Senate and House campaign funds. Kerry transferred $3 million and Gephardt $2.4 million.
Both Kerry and Edwards were dependent on contributors who gave the maximum amount allowed by law: $2,000. Edwards raised $4.8 million, or nearly 65 percent of his total, in $2,000 contributions. Kerry raised $3.9 million in $2,000 contributions, or 55 percent of his total for the quarter.
In net money raised during the past three months, excluding transfers and earlier fundraising, Edwards led with $7.4 million to Kerry's $7 million, Gephardt's $3.5 million, Lieberman's $3 million and Dean's $2.6 million.
The Kerry, Edwards, Gephardt and Lieberman campaigns showed in dramatic terms how much increasing the maximum contribution from $1,000 to $2,000 has changed the competition for money, greatly empowering candidates with access to donors who can write the bigger checks.
For Lieberman, more than 60 percent -- or $1.9 million out of the $3 million he raised -- was made up of contributions of $2,000. Only 13 percent of Lieberman's money was raised in contributions of less than $1,000. For Gephardt, 57 percent of the money arrived as $2,000 contributions; 14 percent was in amounts less than $1,000.
If the limit were still $1,000 and they had the same number of maximum-contribution donors, Edwards would have raised about $3 million less, Kerry would have raised about $2.5 million less and Lieberman would have raised about $1.25 million less.
Dean, who has been running a campaign geared in part to smaller donors, raised $530,000 -- or 20 percent of his $2.6 million raised last quarter -- in $2,000 contributions. Dean had by far the largest percentage of small donations, many received through direct mail or via the Internet. A total of $760,891 -- or 29 percent -- of Dean's contributions was in amounts less than $250, and 60 percent in amounts less than $1,000.
Gephardt, who is seeking to capitalize on the Washington connections he built while he was Democratic leader of the House, is accepting money from political action committees. According to his report, he received $172,000 from PACs, many of them union PACs. Lieberman reported receiving $50,600 from PACs.
In addition to the amount of money raised and cash in the bank, one of the key figures is the rate of spending, indicating how fast a candidate is likely to deplete reserves and run into spending limits if the candidate plans to accept public financing in the primary.
If Graham was the most frugal candidate in the first quarter, as a percentage of what he raised, Lieberman was the most profligate. He spent about 41 percent of the money raised in that period. Kerry spent about 29 percent of what he raised, Dean about 27 percent and Edwards about 23 percent.
In actual dollars, Kerry led the field in spending, with $2 million in disbursements during the first quarter. He spent about $470,000 for campaign salaries, $41,000 for political and other consulting fees, $222,000 for catering, $175,000 on travel expenses and $71,000 for telemarketing.
Edwards was second in spending, with $1.68 million gone.
Lieberman spent $1.2 million. According to his report, Lieberman spent $570,000 on salaries plus more than $155,000 for political, research and communications consulting fees.
Kerry raised almost half of his money in two states: Massachusetts and California. He hauled in about $1.7 million from Massachusetts donors and reaped dividends from many trips to California over the past two years, raising $1.5 million there from January through March.
The detailed reports show interesting patterns of contributions. Dean, a medical doctor, raised $81,500 from physicians, and he also raised nearly $60,000 from educators and students.
Kerry received $1 million from attorneys, including $46,000 from the law firm of Skadden, Arps. He also raised $17,000 from contributors at Harvard University but just $250 from contributors who listed their employer as the Heinz Foundation, which is run by his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry.
Lieberman picked up more than $415,000 from attorneys and $85,000 from physicians.
Gephardt raised about $600,000 from attorneys and $42,000 from Anheuser-Busch. He also listed as contributors a half-dozen journalists who traveled on his announcement tour and reimbursed the campaign for travel expenses. A campaign official said that was a mistake and would be corrected.
Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (Ohio) reported raising $180,000 and spending $130,000. Former Illinois senator Carol Moseley Braun raised $72,000 and spent $27,000. Al Sharpton's campaign had not filed a report as of late last night.
Staff writer Dan Balz and researchers Lucy Shackelford, Madonna Lebling and Margot Williams contributed to this report.
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