Financial Profile Friday: John McCain

Fourth quarter FEC filings have been released, so we have a bit more information about John McCain’s situation than we had for previous Financial Fridays. Please keep that fact in mind when considering his profile in comparison with other candidates.

With Mitt Romney’s withdrawal from the Republican race, John McCain is now in the lead. That gives him fundraising options that hadn’t been previously available to his campaign. Early in the McCain campaign, there were major money problems — in July, 2007, McCain essentially had no money. He had to let staffers go, including his campaign manager and chief strategist, as well as ask other staffers to take pay cuts or work without pay. The McCain campaign’s coffers have slowly refilled, bolstered by winning the New Hampshire primary. As of December 31, 2007, McCain had raised a total of $41.1 million — and you can bet he’ll be getting more support, now that he is dominating the Republican landscape.

McCain is doing pretty well on individual contributions — his current total is $36.5 million. That money is pretty spread out, though. His largest contributor (or rather, organization that contributors are associated with) is Merrill Lynch, with $155,950 — not that much when you think about it. Citigroup and Goldman Sachs also make it into the top 5. McCain has avoided both contributing his own money to his campaign (the form of finance that Mitt Romney entirely relied upon), as well as taking public funds.

Overwhelmingly, McCain’s campaign is spending its money on administrative expenses (56 percent of their expenditures are classified as administrative), with only about $8.7 million being spent on campaign expenses, such as polling.

McCain’s funding has been interesting to watch so far — he’s managed to keep his campaign afloat when others thought that ‘broke’ meant ‘gone.’ He’s become the Republican to watch.

Photo Credit, twinkletoez