All the numbers are out, which means the fun can begin!  Here are the year end numbers for the Senate candidates:

KENNEDY:

$3.65 Million for the year

$2.65 Million in the bank

$1.5 Million in the 4th Quarter

KLOBUCHAR:

$2.5 Million for the year

$1.7 Million in the bank

$700,000 in the 4th Quarter

BELL:

$466,000 for the year

$237,000 in the bank

$231,000 in the 4th Quarter

Alright, what do these numbers mean.  First of all, this is going to be a big dollar race, for better or worse, that’s what we’re looking at and we’ve all known that from the start.  Continuing with the obvious, Kennedy has raised more money, plain and simple.  But let’s get back to that.

First, let’s look at Ford Bell and how he’s doing.  The good news for Bell is that this quarter was a marked increase from the last two quarters.  The bad news is that it’s not good enough.  Everyone who reads this feel free to cry about my commentary in the comment line, but come on, this was supposed to be Bell’s quarter.  Every Bell supporter was chanting the slogan “wait for the 4Q numbers” and I’m looking at them, but I’m not impressed.  Wetterling was almost a non-issue this quarter (even though she dropped late in the quarter, she was not very active at any point) and Bell still just barely beat the numbers Wetterling posted in the 3rd Quarter.  And as much of an improvement this might be for Bell, $231K is less than 1/10th of what Kennedy has in the bank.  Fundraising clearly isn’t everything, it’s not even close to the most important attribute in a candidate, but like I said, for better or for worse, this is going to be a big dollar race and Bell’s falling behind.

Now onto Kennedy/Klobuchar.  Like I said, Kennedy’s ahead.  But this isn’t the whole story.  My conservative counterparts in the blogosphere would like you to believe that being a member of the majority party, being without competition within your party, having the default backing of conservative America, and having the President personally come help you out isn’t much of an advantage.  Sorry guys, these things matter, and they matter a lot.  President Bush came to Minnesota and handed Mark Kennedy $1 million dollars for voting with him 95% of the time, this was a reward.  Does it count?  Of course, it’s in the bank, it’s a real issue.  But it must be considered that Klobuchar managed to raise 200K more when that element is removed from the calculus.  Why is this important?  Well, because the Bush event was a given, and Klobuchar does not have that advantage right now.  So, outside of that significant advantage she managed to best Kennedy despite facing division in her own party!  I think that’s a very big deal.

When all the DFL Senate money is put into one big pile it amounts to more than Kennedy managed to raise even with the Bush fundraiser.  And Klobuchar can lay claim to a vast majority of that pile.  Taking into account how the deck is stacked against the DFL candidates right now, I couldn’t be happier.

Now that I’m sure I’ve raised enough points for both the left and right to bash me on, take to the comments!

Technorati Tags: Amy Klobuchar, Ford Bell, Mark Kennedy