The New York Times released this infographic showing the total money raised by the various candidates. In a “follow the money” sense it’s interesting.
The conventional wisdom has been a Clinton vs. Bush final, and that’s what the money seems to be showing at this point. But what was surprising to me was seeing that Cruz and Perry made it into the 3rd and 5th spots respectively - I haven’t really seen them as serious candidates but apparently the donors see them that way. Bernie Sanders is also doing much better than I would have expected. On the other side, Rand Paul has collected a lot less money than I would have thought he had - guess that groundswell of support is not as big as I thought.
Granted, there are some limitations - Walker seems like he will be a top contender on the Republican side, and he just entered the race so his fundraising hasn’t started in earnest yet. But I thought it would be an interesting starting point for a discussion.
How important is the money trail as this point in the race, and how surprising are the current numbers?