Ron Paul: Five Million Dollar Man

Ron Paul's campaign confirms that it collected $5,080,000 in the third quarter of fundraising. That's more than double the campaign's second quarter haul of $2.4 million; it's also as much as "comeback" candidate John McCain has reportedly raised. Paul has $5.3 million cash on hand, again topping McCain.

That's a far larger total than anyone expected from Paul and it clobbers the rumored numbers that were floating around this week: The Wall Street Journal had reported a $3 million haul. But Paul's 11th hour fundraiser, which raised $1.2 million in seven days, demonstrated that the Paul donation machine had dramatically grown during the summer.

UPDATE: The campaign gloats a little in its press release, pointing out that the top 3 (non-Fred) candidates had fallen off this quarter: Romney by 29 percent, Giuliani by 40 percent, McCain by 55 percent.

Here are Paul's numbers quarter by quarter:

Q1: $639,889
Q2: $2.40 million
Q3: $5.08 million

So he's raised about $8.2 million and spent $2.9 million, a burn rate of around 35 percent. That's a little lower than the burn rate for the frontrunning candidates—though if you're a cynic you could ask why Paul's investment hasn't shown up in the polls. (UPDATE II: Devil's advocate: Paul actually has risen into the 2-4 percent range in New Hampshire, up from the zero he was scoring back in January.)