2004 Candidates Begin to Open War Chests

In the first test of strength of the 2004 presidential campaign, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina announced Tuesday he had raised an estimated $7.4 million toward his White House bid. The showing, one of the best first-quarter performances ever, suggested the depth of Democratic resolve to defeat President Bush.

Other candidates, led by Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, are expected to release their first-quarter totals over the next several days, with their combined receipts expected to easily exceed $10 million. Nine Democrats have declared they are running.

“The fact that so many candidates are raising money so robustly

The fund-raising reports, covering the first three months of the year, are considered an important benchmark, eyed closely by political insiders as one of the first empirical measures of a candidate’s viability.

“The Iowa caucuses are tremendously important. The New Hampshire primary is tremendously important,” said Gerald McEntee, head of the AFL-CIO’s political committee, referring to the first two electoral contests. “But the first test any candidate has to face is: ‘How much money can you raise?’ ”

With unemployment up and the stock market down, the climate is not a particularly good one for collecting campaign cash. But candidates are benefiting from changes in the federal campaign finance law that doubled the maximum contribution allowed by individuals, from $1,000 to $2,000.

On top of that, Edwards started out with a strong financial base in the nation’s legal community, thanks to his success as a trial lawyer before his election to the Senate in 1998. His fund-raising total -- which excludes $1.4 million Edwards maintains in his Senate campaign account -- is the fourth-best first-quarter performance on record and was better than many analysts had expected.

Former Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas holds the first-quarter record, with the $13.5 million he raised in 1995. Vice President Al Gore raised $8.9 million at a comparable point of the 2000 contest, and Bush collected $7.6 million. Gramm went on to raise $21.1 million in his failed bid to win the GOP nomination; Gore and Bush raised more than $40 million for their respective primary contests.

The presidential candidates are required to file their official fund-raising reports with the Federal Election Commission by April 15.

In the meantime, the rival camps are jockeying over how and when to release selected data, in hopes of maximizing favorable media coverage -- or burying disappointing totals.

The early estimates may be significantly revised once the official reports are released. In 1999, for instance, Gore estimated that he raised about $7 million in the first quarter; he actually pulled in nearly $9 million.

Some campaigns cited that discrepancy Tuesday in holding off release of their fund-raising figures.

“We are not going to put out estimates that may not end up holding water in the long run,” said Erik Smith, a spokesman for Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, who said money may be still trickling in from a fund-raiser Friday in his hometown of St. Louis.