Democrats are raising more money than Republicans

The Democratic presidential candidates are raising much more money than the Republican candidates.

From In campaign money race, Democrats vastly outpacing Republicans – The Washington Post:

The Democratic presidential contenders dramatically outpaced their Republican counterparts in the race for campaign cash last quarter, spotlighting how the parties are taking divergent paths in their pursuit of 2016 funding.

The emphasis by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders on raising money directly for their campaigns has helped them amass large donor pools critical to generating the estimated $1 billion each party’s candidate will need to raise by Election Day.

While GOP candidates put an intense focus early in the year on raising huge sums for independent groups, many have had less success in attracting smaller donations that are the lifeblood of campaign operations, campaign finance reports filed Thursday show. . . .

In all, five Democratic candidates have so far reported raising $120 million for their campaign committees this year, while 15 GOP candidates pulled in $141 million overall.

Clinton and Sanders together had $60.3 million on hand at the end of September. Meanwhile, 12 Republicans who had filed their reports by press time Thursday night together reported having $50.6 million in the bank.

The totals raised on each side by the candidate-aligned super PACs are unclear, because they do not have to report their fundraising until Jan. 31. But by mid-year, GOP allied groups had raised $234 million and Democratic groups had pulled in $17 million.

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson raised the most in the Republican field last quarter, scooping up $20.8 million. He still fell short of the totals posted by Clinton ($29.5 million) and Sanders ($26.2 million).

Other GOP candidates trail behind: Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas ($12.2 million), former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina ($6.8 million), Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida ($5.7 million), Ohio Gov. John Kasich ($4.4 million), New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ($4.2 million) and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky ($2.5 million).

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