Palin Narrowly Outraises Romney at End of 2010

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Updated at 3:56 p.m. on January 31.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin led her potential rivals for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination in end-of-the-year fundraising, nosing ahead of her closest competitor, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, according to their Federal Election Commission filings.

Both Palin and Romney delivered impressive year-end fundraising reports, which are due to be filed with the FEC by midnight tonight. From November 23 to December 31, 2010, Palin's Sarah PAC hauled in $279,000.

Palin's total is particularly striking because she outraised Romney using only a federal political action committee. Romney's series of state-level PACs set up in Alabama, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, detailed in a New York Times report last year, allows big donors to max out both to Romney's federal committee, the Free and Strong America PAC, and to his state organizations, which often have higher contribution limits.

That state network helped Romney outraise Palin in the previous reporting period, which covered mid-October to the end of November. But he wasn't as fortunate in the final reporting period of the year: In those five weeks, Romney's federal PAC raised almost $175,000 and his state PACs hauled in $36,000, bringing his total to about $211,000 -- roughly $68,000 less than Palin's take for the period.

Even so, Romney started out 2011 with more cash on hand than Palin. He had more than $1.44 million in his state and federal campaign coffers, while she finished the year with $1.3 million in her campaign account. For the full year, Romney was the breakaway fundraising leader, taking in $6.3 million to Palin's $3.6 million.

Palin's fundraising success suggests that her unorthodox media strategy of making appearances on Fox News, occasional posts on her Facebook page, and comments via Twitter has cultivated a dedicated network of contributors.

In the fundraising sweepstakes, Palin and Romney lapped the field of other potential GOP presidential hopefuls. Of the others who had filed FEC reports when this article was written:

• Sen. John Thune of South Dakota had the best performance, raising almost $71,000 and ending the year with $182,200 in the bank.
• Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty brought in nearly $59,000, ending the year with $155,000 on hand.
• Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's Huck PAC raised $35,000 and has $138,000.
• Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich raised $31,000; his American Solutions PAC had $65,000 in the bank as of January 1.