United Liberty

For all the talk about Rick Perry’s implosion, he may be able to gain back some momentum as his campaign announced a $17 million fundraising haul last quarter (actually seven weeks, given he didn’t get into the race until mid-August); far above anyone else in the Republican field:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry raised $17 million in the first seven weeks of his campaign for president, a large haul that could help right the course of his struggling campaign.

He has $15 million cash on hand and did not say if his campaign had any debt.
[…]
“The generous contributions from Americans across the nation prove the overwhelming support for Gov. Perry’s principled, conservative leadership and vision to get America working again,” said Perry campaign manager Rob Johnson. “The governor will continue traveling the country talking directly to Americans about restoring our economic strength, job creation and putting our country on a path to prosperity and opportunity for future generations. Gov. Perry deeply appreciates the energetic support and hard work of the thousands of Republican volunteers and activists who’ve helped us build a strong and growing organization in just seven weeks.”

The Texas governor was expected to have a strong fundraising quarter despite his late entry into the race. (He launched his campaign Aug. 13, about halfway through the third quarter.) By comparison, Romney raised $18 million in the entire second quarter.

The rate that his campaign is spending money is impressive, but it’s unlikely to stay that way given that they have some work to do to rebrand Perry after a terrible past few weeks. According to what we know, Perry brought in a few million more than Romney, who raised around $14 million over the entire quarter.

I had a conversation with a friend, who I disagree with often, but very much respect his opinion, about Perry last night. He still believes that Perry is in the race because the only other candidate that has the organization to win is Romney and his support hasn’t increased much with Perry’s decline. Herman Cain, who raised around $2 million last quarter and is the conservative movement’s current “Flavor of the Month,” may be receiving attention right now, but that’s likely to subside as it did before because he’ll prove himself to be too inexperienced for the nomination.

Is this the first of a wave of promising news about Perry? We’ll find out soon enough, but he has the money and the time to right the ship.