Gephardt falls far short of fund-raising goal with $3.87 million

Lieberman shakes up fund-raising team

Presidential candidate Dick Gephardt fell short of his fund-raising goal by more than $1 million, raising questions about his ability to excite Democratic donors and remain a top-tier candidate.

The former House Minority leader, who hoped to raise $5 million from April to June, collected just $3.87 million -- apparently placing him in a distant fifth-place among the nine Democratic presidential candidates.

Gephardt is not the only Democrat with money woes. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut shuffled his fund-raising team after raising $5.1 million this quarter, good enough for third or fourth place but still a disappointment for the 2000 vice presidential nominee who leads in many national polls.

Lieberman's problem may be his expenses; he has about $4 million in cash on hand, less than Gephardt, Dean, Kerry and Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

Campaign officials had told reporters Gephardt would report about $4.5 million on his fund-raising report which is released Tuesday. But some donors did not meet their commitments and some money arrived after the second quarter ended June 30, Murphy said.

He said the campaign had $6.3 million in the bank, less than Kerry and Edwards are expected to report later Tuesday and about the same as Dean.

Fund-raising totals are considered an early measure of candidates' strength, but the importance can be overstated. Many Democrats believe there will be five or six candidates who raise enough money to compete in the early primaries, and Gephardt is on virtually every Democrats' list of top five candidates.