Primary Wins Boost McCain's Fundraising

Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images

Arizona Sen. and Republican presidential hopeful John McCain celebrates his victory in the Florida Republican Presidential Primary Jan. 29.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain's latest report to the Federal Election Commission shows that at the end of 2007, he was actually in the red — with $3 million on hand and $4.5 million in debts.

Much of the debt comes from a line of credit the Arizona senator took out last fall, after his campaign nearly ran out of cash.

Since the New Year, McCain has won Republican primaries in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. His campaign says that its fundraising for the month of January alone has surpassed the $7 million it raised in the last three months of 2007.

McCain's main rival for the GOP nomination, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, has been buttressing his campaign funds with personal wealth. Romney held a high-profile fundraising event after finishing second in New Hampshire's primary Jan. 8. It netted only $1.5 million in funds to be spent on the primaries.

McCain was first among the top candidates to file a year-end report. The filing deadline is midnight Thursday.