The WSJ [subscription required] pegs the number at $30 million for Hillary Clinton’s first quarter fundraising.
The strategy in the expectations game is always to lowball your own figures and highball everybody else’s. Howard Wolfson set Edwards at $20 million and Obama at $40 million, so they figure neither will hit that goal and HRC will easily surpass her opponents.
But openly admitting to $30 million is a big sign for the insiders. That would be one third of the so-called opening bar price of $100 million that the media expect of a presidential campaign.
Compare that to the Casey-Santorum Pennsylvania Senate race, which was one of the longest, most expensive races of 2006. Their combined spending topped out atabout $41 million.
HRC’s people are nothing if not calculating and goal-driven. I’ll bet you they are shooting higher than one-third. My guess? Hillary gets within $4 million of that — and I’m not sure I would limit it to $4 million under.
