Richardson raises $7 million during second quarter

Gov. Bill Richardson raised a respectable $7 million during the second quarter of 2007, placing him solidly in fourth place among Democratic presidential candidates and $2 million behind John Edwards.

The Associated Press said Richardson was “at Edwards’ heels” during the second quarter, but also pointed out that the governor’s six-month total was more than $13 million, while Edwards raised about $23 million.

Richardson received contributions from more than 24,000 individual donors during the quarter, which began on April 1 and ended Saturday. More than 38,000 have contributed to his campaign since he entered the race in January, said spokesman Pahl Shipley.

That’s far short of the number of individual contributors to the top three candidates. More than 100,000 individuals have given to Edwards’ campaign since he entered the race. Hillary Clinton raised about $27 million this quarter, but doesn’t disclose the number of donors. She has raised about $55 million in six months. And Barack Obama raised $32.5 million from 154,000 individual donors this quarter, bringing his six-month total to about $58 million from 258,000 donors.

Obama’s total for the quarter is a record for Democrats.

Still, Shipley said Richardson’s campaign is exactly where its leaders want it to be.

“Our goal was to increase fundraising over the first quarter, and we did,” he said. “Our fundraising is growing, our poll numbers are growing, we’re building momentum, we’re on goal and on budget. We feel very good about how we’re doing.”

It’s notable that Richardson didn’t enter the race until Jan. 21, so he raised almost as much during a shorter first quarter as he did during the second quarter. Still, as proven by Edwards, it’s harder to raise cash in the second quarter, because a candidate secures his easiest money during the first quarter. The fact that Richardson was able to keep his momentum going and increase his fundraising is quite significant.