GOP’s war chest tops in Nevada

Despite all the Democratic attention to Nevada with last month's record-setting caucuses, Republicans out-raised Democrats by a nearly 2-to-1 margin in the state over the past year, according to the Federal Election Commission.

Campaign contributions from Nevadans to Republican presidential candidates in 2007 totaled $2.4 million, while Democratic candidates, whose footprint here was much heavier, raised $1.3 million.

Candidates' fourth-quarter campaign reports were due to the FEC at midnight Thursday.

In the last three months of the year, Republican Mitt Romney raised the most money in Nevada, $119,311, followed very closely by former rival Rudy Giuliani. Nevadans gave Giuliani, who dropped out of the race this week, $119,125 in the fourth quarter.

Republican Fred Thompson also did well financially here before quitting the race. His fourth-quarter total was $89,290. John McCain raised $23,829, while Mike Huckabee took in $16,861.

A state-by-state breakdown for Republican Ron Paul wasn't available on the FEC's Web site Friday. Paul came in second to Romney in the Jan. 19 Republican caucuses, followed closely by McCain.

The Democrats spent a lot of money campaigning in Nevada, but they didn't raise as much. Barack Obama was the top fourth-quarter fundraiser in the state, with $43,143.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who dropped out before the Nevada caucus, was second, raising $37,920 over the period. Throughout his campaign, Richardson established a frustrating pattern of successfully milking his connections here for cash while failing to make an impression on the state's electorate.

The winner of the Democratic caucus, Hillary Clinton, was a close third with $37,554 raised. John Edwards, whose disappointing showing in Nevada presaged the fizzling out of his campaign this week, raised $17,980.

Over the course of the entire year, Romney and Giuliani again were the top fundraisers in Nevada, with Romney alone taking in nearly $850,000 and Giuliani $780,000. Clinton was third for the year, followed by McCain, Richardson, Paul and Obama.

The records show that in October, November and December, when the candidates were focused on campaigning rather than fundraising, the Democrats took in mostly small individual donations, probably because many big-money donors already had hit the federal maximum contribution limit.

According to the Wisconsin Advertising Project, presidential candidates spent $2.5 million on TV ads in Nevada.