Ron Paul Still Outraising Romney in at Least 10 States

The Texas Congressman makes large donor fundraising gains in a dozen states on the presumptive GOP nominee in Q1 2012

While all is seemingly quiet on the Republican primary front - with Mitt Romney simply playing a waiting game before he officially nets the 1,144 delegates required to proclaim himself the GOP presidential nominee - the Ron Paul campaign continues to make the occasional wave.

Last weekend Paul supporters captured the vast majority of delegates selected at the congressional district conventions held across the State of Minnesota.

And yet, despite Paul never winning even a plurality of a state's primary or caucus vote count, the Texas U.S. Representative amassed not only the second largest GOP war chest but also an outright lead over Romney in receipts collected from at least 10 states across the country.

A Smart Politics review of FEC fundraising totals through Q1 2012 finds Ron Paul leads Mitt Romney in large donor itemized fundraising in 10 states, representing all four geographical regions from the northeast (Maine), the South (Arkansas), the Midwest (Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin), and the West (Alaska, Hawaii, New Mexico).

Of course, Romney leads the field in donations by wide margins across most of the big ticket states like California, New York, Florida, New Jersey, Illinois, and Virginia. (Rick Perry still leads the field in Texas and Rick Santorum overtook Romney in Pennsylvania).

Still, many of the states in which Romney trails Paul and has yet to flex his customary fundraising muscle will be key battleground states in the general election: Iowa, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Wisconsin.

Congressman Paul lost his fundraising advantage against Romney in the states of Delaware and Montana since the end of 2011, but he overtook the former Massachusetts governor in Maine and Wisconsin over the last three months to maintain his advantage in 10 states against the GOP frontrunner.

Six of these 10 states are caucus states (Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, North Dakota), where Paul hinted ever since his third place finish in Iowa that he would ultimately come away with the most delegates.

"The delegates haven't even been appointed in Iowa yet. I mean, quite frankly, we have a pretty good chance of getting a good sum of those because of the organization. We only had a straw vote. I mean, this argument on who won, it was a straw vote. I mean, the delegates is what counts." - Ron Paul (January 23, 2012, NBC News / National Journal debate in Tampa, Florida)

That appears to be the case in Minnesota.

Paul actually raised more large donor itemized money than Romney in a dozen states across the country in the first quarter of the year including seven Midwestern states: Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

Paul increased his fundraising advantage or cut into Romney's lead in Alabama (gaining $19,954 on Romney), Arkansas ($7,608), Hawaii ($10,377), Iowa ($41,308), Kansas ($15,603), Maine ($21,026), Minnesota ($28,135), Nebraska ($7,931), New Mexico ($7,224), North Dakota ($11,051), South Dakota ($4,450), and Wisconsin ($31,219).

In truth, Congressman Paul has likely outraised Romney in several other states if all contributions (large donor plus small donor) could be calculated, however only large contributions require the reporting of such geographic donor information.

For while Romney has raised 88.6 percent of his $85.6 million in individual income from large donors ($75.8 million), Paul has raised just 53.9 percent of his $35.7 million from this group ($19.2 million).

That means an additional $16.4 million haul in small donor money to the Paul campaign is not included in the data listed above compared to just $9.7 million in small donor funds to Romney.

Paul very narrowly trails Romney in the fundraising game in Vermont ($4,762), Delaware ($9,807), and Montana ($16,042).

Overall, Romney has raised the most money in 36 states plus the District of Columbia, followed by Paul with nine, Rick Perry with three (OK, TX, WV), and Tim Pawlenty (MN) and Rick Santorum (PA) with one each.

Through March, Paul eclipsed his total fundraising for the entire 2008 cycle (a cycle in which he did not withdraw until June 12th) by more than $2 million.

Itemized Individual Contributions Received by Mitt Romney and Ron Paul Through Q1 2012

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