Sen. John McCain raised more than $15 million in March for his presidential campaign, more than any month since he started running. It’s way short of his democratic rivals.

He is returning $3 million in donations given for the General election but contributors are being asked to resend the money to his legal fund (see “McCain and the Money” April 4th post). A source says the money was raised primarily from large donors but he did receive $3.2 million from internet and small donations.

Obama raised $40 million for his primary race in March, the majority of which came from small donors. Clinton raised $20 million.

Taken together various steps and utterances from McCain insiders over the last few weeks make it clear he intends to accept taxpayer funded matching funds for the general election.

The FEC check will be about 85 million dollars.

Skepticism over Giuliani’s finances dogged him for another day in Florida. He has spent the last few trying to reassure voters that he is not tapped out, even while some aides voluntarily give up their paychecks.

Rudy’s latest attempt to allay doubts came as he spoke to Wendell Goler aboard his campaign bus.

Click below to see Rudy explain in his own words.

http://embeds.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/rudygolerstrategy.mov

Can he convince reporters, bloggers and the public that his Florida must-win strategy is working despite most of the current polls showing him lagging behind McCain in Florida?

Real Clear Politics has the numbers.

Read Mosheh Oinounou, our embed producer’s full write up on this at embeds.blogs.foxnews.com

It’s like gravity in the national polls: Mayor Giuliani has not competed aggressively in IA, NH, MI, or SC. He is no longer the national front-runner and the Florida firewall may be starting to smolder. Money is an issue with the big Super Tuesday, February 5th states coming in little more than three weeks. Rudy aides say they are prepared to spend 8 million in Florida. That means every penny he has is spoken for and he’s asked staffers to work without pay. He says it’s not a problem.

Beverly Hills, CA-

GOP Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is on a western fundraising swing to raise cash for his surging campaign. He stopped in Beverly Hills for some private fundraisers, but took a moment yesterday to answer some questions from the press corps. We asked him about Romney’s new ad that challenges Huckabee’s crime record as Arkansas governor. Huckabee called the ad inaccurate because he was “hardly soft on crime”, pointing to the 16 convicted murderers he placed on death row. Huckabee described these tactics by his rivals as “desperate… and…despicable.”

Also, I asked him on another report: More push-polling claims, this time in Florida against Rudy Giuliani, to a group who have claimed, in the past, to be supporters of Huckabee. Huck again emphatically denounced the push-polling and wondered if, in fact, these people claiming to support his campaign were actually trying to help a rival because he has repeatedly asked them to stop.

“If someone thinks they are doing us a favor, they aren’t,”Huckabee said.” Maybe they are tied to somebody else’s campaign? If so, let’s expose it.”

CHECK OUT VIDEO HERE:

Fred Thompson’s campaign is asking you to add the presidential candidate to your Christmas shopping list. In an e-mail sent to supporters Tuesday afternoon titled “Fred’s 12 Days of Christmas,” the campaign asks supporters to “add Fred to your list and make sure that he has a Merry Christmas and a happy primary season.” Taking after the popular holiday carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” Thompson has a dozen requests for the holiday ranging from $20 for “ten signs a waving” signs to $2,300 for “two planes a flying.”

The email concludes, “take a look at Fred’s wish list and give his campaign a Christmas present that will help carry Fred to victory!”

Here it is:

-12 Yard Signs Posted – $35
-11 Vols a Calling – $50
-10 Signs a Waving – $20
-9 Cell Phones Ringing – $200
-8 Flags a Flying – $100
-7 Mailers Mailing – $250
-6 Emails Blasting – $25
-5 Town Hall Meetings – $750
-4 Ads Playing – $500
-3 Nights Lodging -$350
-2 Planes a Flying – $2,300
-1 Bus Tour Rolling – $1,000

See full email after jump: (more…)

San Francisco, CA – Haven’t seen much of Rudy Giuliani in recent weeks? Well neither have we—at least compared to some of his opponents (save Fred Thompson) who hold between five and seven events a day in New Hampshire and Iowa .

By comparison, the former New York City mayor has been participating in only one or two public events a day. One of Giuliani’s major priorities this month is raising the millions of dollars necessary to compete in Florida, the nearly two dozen February 5 primary states and go up against the personal fortune of rival Mitt Romney. We are here in California for the next two days where he will hold only two public events but plans to attend numerous private fundraisers. Now is crunch time for Hizzoner since there will be little time to fundraise once Christmas rolls around and he starts campaigning around the clock.

The Texas Republican with a Libertarian streak astounded the political world when he raised $5M last quarter… so what’s the right adjective to describe what he did yesterday, when supporters contributed more than $4 million in just 24 hours?

In New Hampshire, GOP officials marvel at Ron Paul’s organization in the Granite State and his ability to raise money. These officials say they would not be suprised at all if Ron Paul took 3rd or 4th in the primary and meant the death knell for at least one top tier candidate. It speaks to the power of independents in NH; Bush beat McCain in 2000 among republicans but Indies put McCain over the top.

Ron Paul himself talked about his big day on Fox News Radio.

“It is amazing, it’s even surprising to me, but of course very pleasant to know that people were spontaneously coming to us,” he said. “Because it was not organized by the campaign. I have not yet talked to or met the individual that organized this, but yesterday’s fundraising was all done on the internet, and it was all done spontaneously. So something significant must be going on out there in the countryside.”

Asked why people donated in such numbers, Paul said “I don’t think anybody has a full explanation. I think it’s a message that people were starved for, in that people are very upset with what’s happening. They’re upset with the war, they’re upset with the economy, they’re upset with the future. The young people don’t look forward to paying into Social Security, and I come up with answers that are plausible and reasonable. And I think this is what has stirred their interest.”

Read the rest of the interview after the jump.

(more…)