Rick's fund raising remains strong, Kay's falls in January...

Finance reports for the month of January 2010 are out, and Rick has continued his path toward overtaking Kay after her early lead which she accumulated from transferring several million dollars left over from her federal coffers to her gubernatorial account (link)...

There was amazingly little attention paid to the 6 month report for the second half of 2009... but it turned out that Kay had transferred more money from her federal account into her state campaign account... just enough to overtake Rick in cash on hand. Rick actually raised far far more in the second half of 2009 than Kay did. It looks like he is still cranking out donations from supporters while Kay has fizzled out. Excerpt follows...

Perry raised $734,000 in January, spent $1.9 million and has $10.4 million on hand.

Hutchison raised $270,000, spent $3.4 million and has $10 million on hand.

Debra Medina’s fundraising improved, but she continues to lag behind the two bigger names in the race. She raised $145,000, spent $108,000 and has $69,000 on hand.

Medina is not surging in donations the way her campaign was putting on. Today's "money bomb" will be informative... if Debra can raise a million dollars today it will give her a chance to get up on television and radio, which would then allow her to raise more big money bombs. If she can't, then she is done... the debates will be the last major time she will be in the major media. That is unless Medina can pass Kay in a public poll such as Rasmussen... in which case Medina will get serious attention but also serious scrutiny from the press who will feel obligated to challenge her more than they do now...

I think those spending totals are also really really interesting... Kay has out spent Rick by a long shot, but she keeps losing ground...

For the final month Rick has more cash on hand than Kay and has demonstrated a better propensity for raising additional money. Medina remains negligible but should stay on the minds of Rick and Kay if she can raise a large amount at today's money bomb or appears to be gaining ground.