Rick Perry racks up more than $17 million over 7 weeks

Texas Gov. Rick Perry raised $17.1 million in campaign funds in the third quarter, a display of fundraising prowess that probably will boost him past his chief presidential rival, Mitt Romney, in the dash for cash and also buys him time to get his troubled campaign back on track.


It also keeps his presidential campaign afloat through the all-important GOP debates in the next few weeks en route to the early primaries next year.


Perry, who entered the race in mid-August, raised the money in 49 of the 92 days in the quarter from more than 22,000 donors in all 50 states. Fifty-one percent of his donors live outside Texas.


The Perry campaign said it had $15 million cash on hand as of September 30. All but about $50,000 raised will go toward the Republican presidential primary race, the campaign said.


"After nearly three weeks of bad news, there's finally some good news," Rice University political scientist Mark Jones said. "That number says, yes, Rick Perry is a viable candidate. For a lot of conservatives flirting with Herman Cain as a protest candidate, it says, 'I am the only option and I am a serious option. I can compete with Mitt Romney.' "


The $17 million figure is almost as much as Romney raised in his first quarter as a declared presidential candidate earlier this year. The former Massachusetts governor has not released his fundraising totals for the third quarter, although the Boston Globe reported last week that his campaign would raise somewhere between $11 million and $13 million this quarter.


No other candidate is expected to match either Romney or Perry. Ron Paul announced Wednesday that he has raised $8 million in the third quarter.


This is a very good start to Rick Perry's fundraising," said Anthony Corrado, a campaign-finance expert at Colby College in Maine. "He's going to be competitive."
Perry ended the July-to-September fundraising quarter with $15 million in available cash, almost all of it available for the GOP nomination fight. Nearly half of Perry's donors came from Texas, where he is in his third term as governor and has long enjoyed the support of the state's deep-pocketed donors.
Rob Johnson, Perry's campaign manager, said the total demonstrates "overwhelming support for Gov. Perry's principled, conservative leadership."
Support for Perry rose sharply when he entered the race in mid-August but has declined in recent surveys amid controversy over his debate performances and stance on immigration. He also faced questions about a Washington Post story on a racial epithet painted at the entrance of a hunting camp Perry and his father leased in West Texas.
Perry's strong performance gives him "the opportunity to pull it together and right the ship," said Keith Appell, a Republican strategist who is unaffiliated with a 2012 campaign.
"Anybody who has been governor of Texas for 10 years has a lot of wealthy friends who have lots of other wealthy friends," he said. "This number confirms that aspect of his appeal as a candidate, in spite of missteps in recent weeks."
Despite Perry's strong showing, Romney has a head start. He raised nearly $18.3 million during the April-to-June fundraising quarter — more than any other GOP candidate then in the field. "We feel good in the strength of our finance team and the fact that we are adding new people every day," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a statement.
This week, the Romney camp said it had secured the support of Kenneth Langone, a Home Depot co-founder, who had urged New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to enter the presidential race. Christie declined to enter the race Tuesday, and candidates are scrambling to court the wealthy fundraisers who have remained on the sidelines in the Republican nomination fight.
"These major donors are thirsting for a winner," said Bill Palatucci, a close Christie ally who was a top fundraiser in President Bush's 2000 and 2004 campaigns. He said he will remain uncommitted until Christie picks a candidate and expects many other fundraisers in the Garden State to do the same.
A key test for Perry, experts such as Corrado say, will be his ability to expand his support beyond his Texas donor base. "No candidate is clearly breaking out of the pack," he said.
The Republican field will probably lag President Obama's fundraising. His campaign manager, Jim Messina, recently set a combined $55 million fundraising goal for the campaign and the Democratic National Committee.