Fundraising

Businessman Bill Binnie plugged another $1.7 million of his own money into the New Hampshire GOP Senate primary in the first quarter.

The money brings his total investment in the race to nearly $3 million and serves notice that the frontrunner Republican, former state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, will almost surely be outspent in the primary.

Binnie's campaign also raised $400,000 for the quarter, bringing its total receipts to $2.1 million for the quarter and $3.7 million overall.

Ayotte raised about $1.2 million through the end of the year. She has not released first-quarter totals.

On the Democratic side, Rep. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.) has raised close to $3 million for the race, including $655,000 in the first quarter.

Rep. Paul Hodes's (D-N.H.) Senate campaign has seen its fundraising dip slightly from the last quarter of 2009, but it still pulled in a decent $665,000 in the first quarter of 2010.

Hodes's campaign said it entered this month with $1.7 million in the bank.

He has been raising money stride-for-stride with GOP favorite and former state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, who has yet to announce her first-quarter totals.

Ayotte faces a primary, though, and a pair of self-funders have already banked $1 million for the race. Businessman Bill Binnie raised $400,000 in the first quarter and previously self-funded more than $1 million, while businessman Jim Bender loaned his campaign $400,000 last quarter, raised $100,000 and had $1 million cash on hand.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) wasn't outraised in the first quarter by as much as previously thought, but she did spend heavily.

Lincoln's campaign just came out with some more specific numbers. It turns out she raised more than $1.3 million (versus the "more than $1 million" previously reported) and has $4.3 million on hand. Lincoln's cash on hand dropped by about $700,000, meaning she spent heavily -- about $2 million -- defending herself in the primary.

Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D), who is challenging Lincoln in a primary, raised $2 million in the first quarter. He raised that amount in a shorter time period, though, having entered the race late in the quarter.

Republican frontrunners Rep. John Boozman (R-Ark.) and state Sen. Gilbert Baker have yet to announce their first quarter totals.

Illinois state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (D) turned in his best fundraising quarter of the cycle so far, but he still raised about $1 million less than GOP opponent Mark Kirk in the Illinois Senate race.

Giannoulias's campaign just announced it raised $1.2 million in the first quarter in an e-mail to supporters. It's about twice what he raised last quarter, but it pales in comparison to Kirk's $2.2 million first quarter, which the congressman announced last week.

Kirk, who faced a less serious primary challenge, is also set to be in much better financial position for the general election, as he announced $3 million cash on hand. Giannoulias's campaign has not announced a cash on hand figure, but it was burning through serious cash to make it through a primary with former Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman in February, and it had less than $1 million on hand at the end of the year.

Giannoulias beat Hoffman 39-34. Since then, the Democratic nominee has dealt with a series of problems stemming from his family bank, which is on the brink of failure and, according to the Chicago Tribune, lent $20 million to a pair of convicted felons.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) has given his opponents plenty of ammunition, but he's also going to have plenty of his own -- in monetary form.

The outspoken liberal congressman from a swing Orlando district announced Tuesday that he raised $803,000 in the first quarter of 2010, including nearly $500,00 during a one-day "moneybomb" in March.

Grayson also raised about $830,000 in the fourth quarter of 2009, giving him a nearly unheard-of back-to-back $800,000 quarters. The last haul came after Grayson made comments on the House floor that Republicans who opposed the healthcare bill wanted Americans to "die quickly." Since then, he has become a national liberal icon who has tapped his renown to raise gobs of money.

"This is what people power looks like," he said.

Grayson's campaign said he now has more than $1.5 million on hand.

One of Grayson's GOP opponents, businessman Bruce O'Donoghue, announced earlier this month that he had raised $300,000 for the quarter.

Former Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) is hitting up his former colleagues as he attempts a return to the Senate.

Coats was slated Monday night to hold a fundraiser in Washington headlined by a whopping 14 former senators -- most who have other business in Washington.

The host list for Coats's Monday reception at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse was slated to include former Sens. Spencer Abraham (Mich.), Trent Lott (Miss.), John Ashcroft (Mo.), Connie Mack (Fla.), Norm Coleman (Miss.), Mel Martinez (Fla.), Bob Dole (Kan.), Don Nickles (Okla.), Pete Domenici (N.M.), Rick Santorum (Pa.), Slade Gorton (Wash.), Gordon Smith (Ore.), Tim Hutchinson (Ark.) and John Warner (Va.).

That's two former Senate majority leaders, three former cabinet officials and several other recently departed former senators.

Suggested donations to Coats's Indiana Senate campaign were $2,500 per PAC and $2,400 per person to host, and $1,000 to attend.

UPDATE: Coats's campaign says Lott, Mack, Nickles, Hutchinson and Warner attended.

Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier's (R) congressional campaign upped its fundraising slightly in the first quarter, pulling in $230,000 for his challenge to Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.).

Frazier narrowly outraised Perlmutter $219,000 to $215,000 in the fourth quarter of 2009 -- his first after switching from the state's Senate race to the congressional race. But this quarter, the incumbent got the better of Frazier, outraising him $330,000 to $230,000.

Perlmutter has $1.25 million in the bank. A cash on hand figure wasn't immediately available from Frazier.

NEW ORLEANS -- Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty's political action committee raised $566,000 in the first quarter, it announced Saturday.

The total, which was announced in advance of Pawlenty's video address to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference here this afternoon, is less than half what the PAC raised in the fourth quarter of 2009 -- its first in existence.

The Freedom First PAC has now raised a total of $1.84 million. Pawlenty, who is exploring a 2012 presidential run, has begun endorsing candidates for Congress in 2010.

“President Obama and Congressional Democrats are taking our country in the wrong direction and Americans have had enough,” Pawlenty said. “We need to put freedom first again in America, and stop the out-of-control spending in Washington. The early support for our organization will help us elect candidates who can rein in Washington and renew the promise of freedom.”

Despite the dropoff in the first quarter, Pawlenty's six-month total puts him on pace with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's PAC, which raised nearly $3 million in 2009. Romney's PAC hasn't released fundraising totals for the first quarter yet.

As Marco Rubio's fundraising takes off, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has seen his numbers fall precipitously.

Crist's campaign just released its figures for the first three months of 2010. He raised $1.1 million (compared to Rubio's gigantic $3.6 million, which he announced earlier this week) and wasn't able to bank any of it, with his cash on hand remaining at about $7.5 million.

The numbers reveal just how the game has changed in the Senate primary. Crist raised $4.3 million in his initial quarter of fundraising and has seen his numbers drop off steadily since then, to $2.4 million and then $2 million in the last two quarters. Rubio, meanwhile, has seen his fundraising skyrocket as he has overtaken Crist in the polls. Rubio's total have gone up from under $350,000 in his first two quarters to the huge sum he announced earlier this week.

Marco Rubio had a huge fundraising quarter in the first three months of 2010, raising $3.6 million.