Travel tells who '04 hopefuls are

By Anonymous -
This USA Today article presents Dean as the most active Presidential candidate as of yet. With his retirement in January as Governor of VT, he'll be campaigning even more, here are some excerpts, including early financial numbers:



"Just by the traveling you can see how serious I am," he says in an interview. He already has a full-fledged presidential fundraising committee. The others have yet to take an intermediate step — forming an "exploratory" committee. "Exploratory committees are silly," he says.

Dean, who returns to Iowa this week, readily admits that "money is my Achilles' heel." He has raised less than $200,000 since Jan. 1, 2001, according to the latest report to the Federal Election Commission on June 30....

Compare that to the brisk fundraising that the other prospects are doing through political action committees. Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., the party's vice presidential candidate in 2000, reported raising $2.4 million over the same period. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., reported receipts of $1.5 million... Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who reported raising $6.8 million in 18 months. He still had half of it as of June 30 and he has no opposition this fall. Edwards isn't up for re-election until 2004 but has $2 million in his Senate campaign account. Lieberman, up in 2006, has nearly $700,000. House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., raised about $911,000 through his PAC and another $1.9 million in his re-election committee... Former vice president Al Gore has made 19 trips to the five states and raised $1.2 million.
While the others raise their millions, Dean is becoming a familiar overnight guest at homes across Iowa and New Hampshire. "It's more fun" than hotels, he says. "To stay up yakking with somebody until a ridiculous hour when you have to get up at 5 in the morning, that's something I like." Besides, he adds, "it saves money."




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