Money a Problem for Many Candidates Before Feb. 5

The question in the minds of many of the remaining presidential candidates right now, both Republican and Democratic, is whether or not they should go for the Hail Mary at the last second.

The Hail Mary is the NFL Super Bowl and the last second is Super Tuesday. And with so many states to cover on Feb.5 and campaign ad budgets shrinking faster than most people's stock portfolios, the big question is whether or not to go for the long bomb - an ad on the big game on Feb 3 - or to buy a lot of locally target ads. The cost for a Super Bowl ad is around $2.7 million. But you also have the attention of a sizable number of voters in the 22 states that are up for grabs on Super Tuesday.

The Washington Post reports that the Barack Obama campaign "yesterday became the first to make a nationwide cable television advertising buy, and several candidates were devoting resources to new methods of targeting absentee voters."

You can see the affect that money has most clearly in the Republican field. (Democrats Obama and Hillary Clinton have both raised more than $100 million, but have attended additional fund-raisers in the past couple of days to sure up that dwindling bundle.)

First, there is millionaire Mitt Romney. He is using more and more of his own fortune in his run for the nomination and may end up spending as much as $50 million of his own money.

On the other hand is Mike Huckabee. As The New York Times "The Trail" reports "A chronic lack of campaign money may finally be catching up to Mike Huckabee."

The former Arkansas governor has not been able to translate his victory in Iowa into more funds for his candidacy. Now that he's lost in South Carolina, a state many considered his best chance at another victory in the early primaries and caucuses, he has "canceled press buses or charter flights to conserve his cash" and cut down on his number of appearances in Florida.

"Mr. Huckabee raised only about $2.3 million in the first three quarters of last year, less than 5 percent of what his three remaining competitors raised. He never had enough money to send advance teams to plan events or drum up crowds, nor could he afford polls, big-name political consultants, or a staff of policy advisers."

4:24 PM ET | 01-22-2008 | permalink