Paul turns heads with campaign donations

WASHINGTON — The cult of Ron Paul, 72, seems to be picking up lots of new members — and some serious money.

The Republican presidential candidate — a conservative-libertarian Texas congressman whose anti-war fundamentalism has attracted a broad following among young people and Internet buzz — has been widely considered a longshot, with his campaign running on a shoestring budget and not much more than gumption.

Or so it appeared until Wednesday, when Paul's team said it had raised about $5.1 million from July through September. His total is more than $8 million for this year.

That may seem like spare change compared with Democrat Hillary Clinton's $27 million third-quarter take, but it puts Paul in the range of several other contenders:

• Democrat Bill Richardson and Republican John McCain estimated they each had raised about as much as Paul did for the quarter.

• Democrat John Edwards reported raising about $7 million.

• Republican Fred Thompson is expected to report that he raised about $8 million — and he's running second to Rudy Giuliani in national polls.

• Democrats Joseph Biden and Chris Dodd combined were expected to have less cash to show for the reporting period than Paul has raised.

• Republican Mike Huckabee was expected to report raising about $1 million for the quarter, bringing his total for the year to about $2.3 million.

"Here's a guy nobody is paying attention to, and he's raising real money," said a stunned Tony Fabrizio, a Republican strategist unaffiliated in the presidential contest.

Material from The Associated Press

is included in this report.