I apologize if this has been posted allready, I looked over the last 50 entries and didn't see it.
President Bush has given up raising money for his reelection bid. He has raised $180 million all of which he will spend before his party's convention, Kerry has raised about $79 million and continues to go strong. After their respective conventions the candidates will each recieve $75 million in federal matching funds and not use any other monies.
From the
NYT:
President Bush held his last planned fund-raising event for his re-election campaign on Monday, having collected almost twice as much money as he did in 2000.
By contrast, Senator John Kerry pushed ahead with what will be one of the busiest fund-raising months of his campaign. He is still personally calling donors and attending major events in a dozen cities this month as he seeks to compete with the president's expansive financial network.
Mr. Bush's aides said they saw no need to continue major events because they had met their long-held goal, and had always planned to turn their attention to campaigning at this point in the race. Mr. Bush raised more than $180 million through March, exceeding his goal by $10 million. Mr. Kerry, who has raised $79 million, is taking advantage of an outpouring of Democratic support after emerging as his party's presumptive nominee.
Mr. Bush has held 55 fund-raisers in 32 states, but he has been able to wrap up such events (though he will continue to raise some money through the Internet and direct mail) because he has a sophisticated financial network, something Mr. Kerry is still developing. Because of those deep financial resources, and no primary competition, the president had $110 million on hand at the start of March. Mr. Kerry had $2.4 million on hand after an expensive and competitive primary season.
Bush will still raise significant sums from his fundraising network and direct mail solicitations. I'd guess (totally off the top of my head) that he will end up having raised
$200 million or possibly more. Kerry end up with $125-150 million. Those are just guesses thoug.