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While the race for the presidential nomination from each party has been getting plenty of attention, candidates running for both the House of Representatives and the Senate have been building up their own war chests. While they still have to get the nomination, individuals for Congress really concentrate on making sure they’ll be able to run the race in the fall.
Consider the totals for fundraising in the presidential race: a grand total of $791,766,183 has been raised by all the candidates, and $691,479,424 of that has ben spent. Money’s going …read more

Remember those bad old days when John McCain was broke and barely holding on? You know, the middle of 2007? Well, during his little financial crisis, McCain signed up for public financing in order to stay afloat. It came in handy — John McCain looks like the anointed Republican nominee despite some lingering policy issues with the right. These days, he’s doing well enough that he’s getting plenty of monetary support, to the point that he’s bumping up against legal limits imposed by that public money McCain accepted not so long ago.
The FEC wants to have some words with the …read more

For the next few Fridays, I’m going to focus on a single candidate’s finances — show you where the money is coming from and where it’s going. I’m planning to switch off political parties: I don’t want to pick on anyone too much, or give the impression that I’m being softer on one party than another.

Today, we’re going to take a quick look at John Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina. Edwards had a bit of a head start on fundraising for the 2008 primaries: many of his supporters from his 2004 team-up with Al Gore were still in …read more