Opinion: Mitt Romney keeps his checkbook open

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Mitt Romney is by far the richest person running for president, with a net worth that conservatively has been estimated from $190 million to $250 million. And he remains more than willing to tap his wealth to fuel his White House hopes. Through the first nine months of this year, he has written checks totaling more than $17 million to his campaign.

Romney came from a well-off family to begin with, and before he turned to politics his assets soared during the many years he headed a private-equity investment firm.

Romney’s latest loan to his campaign was disclosed in a release from his aides detailing his fundraising for the third quarter, July 1 through Sept. 30. He took in about $10 million in contributions, and then supplemented that with an $8.5-million loan from his own pocket.

Although fundraising estimates are yet to come from Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, Romney’s bottom line of more than $18 million in receipts for the quarter is expected to lead the GOP pack (earlier this week, the other major Republican candidate, Fred Thompson, reported raising about $8 million during the three-month period).

[AFTERNOON UPDATE: The Giuliani and McCain camps have rolled out their numbers. Giuliani reported garnering about $11 million in the third quarter, which gives him bragging rights for the period when the Romney loan is dicounted from his total. McCain took in about $6 million. The Times’ Dan Morain has the wrapup in a story that notes how the two leading Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, are continuing to lap their GOP counterparts in the fundraising department.]

The surprise so far in the GOP money chase is the $5-million-plus raised in the third quarter by Ron Paul, the onetime libertarian whose insurgent campaign is based on returning the country to policies that prevailed in 1790 or so (no foreign entanglements and a threadbare federal bureaucracy).

Consider: Although many political analysts for months have viewed Romney, based on his strength in the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, as having the inside track for the GOP nomination, the $10 million he got in recent contributions from others is merely double the total for Paul.

Also, check out the trend lines in donations.

Romney: $21 million (first quarter); $14 million (second quarter); $10 million (third quarter).

Paul: $641,000 (first quarter); $2.35 million (second quarter); $5 million (third quarter).

Could these lines cross in the fourth quarter?

-- Don Frederick