I know that many of you are regular readers of my Empriical Cattle Call column / series / feature. For months now I have attempted to rank the candidates based on six categories, each considered to be decent reflections of the current overall state of the primary battle. The purpose of the ECC is to predict how the primary season will play out based on the results of the invisible primary.
Well, a major wrench has been thrown into my plans. the FEC will not force candidate to disclose their current Cash on Hand figures until January 31, after the primary season has begun. This means that the ECC will be forced to make its intial projection without accurate Cash on Hand information.
So, today I am asking politcal junkies of all stripes to try and develop a consensus estimate of the Cash on Hand figures for each campaign. I will use these figures until February 1st, when I can finalize the ECC after the fact. My current estimates are as follows:
Dean: $15M
Clark: $12M
Kerry: $6M
Gephardt: $5M
Edwards: $4M
Lieberman: $4M
Kucinich: $1M
Sharpton and CMB: $0M
Help me out here. What do you guys think?