Rubio blows away Crist's cash record
By DAVID CATANESE | 7/12/10 1:52 PM EDT
Former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio raised $4.5 million in the second quarter of 2010, his Senate campaign announced Monday, bringing the onetime insurgent candidate's receipts for the cycle to more than $11 million.
The haul surpasses Rubio's huge first-quarter take of $3.6 million and sets a new national record for this cycle, blowing past the $4.3 million mark previously set by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist.
A spokesman for Rubio said the candidate's cash-on-hand figure was not yet available, but the campaign boasted that more than 75,000 people have donated nearly $11 million over the course of Rubio's entire bid. The former state legislator has taken in $1.3 million online, in a sign of grassroots support for his candidacy.
Crist, who left the GOP to run for Senate as an independent after Rubio mounted an unexpectedly strong primary challenge, has not released his total receipts for the period between April and the end of June. On the Democratic side, Rep. Kendrick Meek brought in $1.1 million for his campaign and billionaire real estate investor Jeff Greene has pumped millions of his own cash into a campaign for the Democratic nomination.
"A year ago, many were convinced that a principled campaign against the big spending Obama-Pelosi-Crist-Meek agenda stood no chance in the face of better-funded and more popular opponents," Rubio said in a statement. "A year later, I'm thankful that our supporters have always understood what the stakes are in this election and have rallied behind us to create this movement."
Crist's second-quarter report will be the first test of his ability to tap donors outside the fold of the Republican Party, after his defection from the GOP on April 29. Last quarter he took in $1.1 million – a far diminished figure from his quarterly numbers in the early days of the Senate race.
Still, recent polls of a three-way race have shown Crist and Rubio neck-and-neck with Meek and Greene trailing by significant margins.
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