Politics

The Money Trail

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

February 15, 1999 / 11:02 AM EST / CBS

Big bucks will be needed to capture the presidential dance card in campaign 2000, reports CBS News Correspondent Phil Jones.

Every presidential candidate will have to raise between $22 million and $25 million by the end of this year.

Reaching that goal sounds like a tall order even to big gun Texas Gov. George Bush Jr. "Should I decide to run for the presidency, I'm going to have to raise a lot of money quickly," said Bush.

The Republicans who are galloping around the country know that each one will have to rope in $60,000 to $70,000 each day to compete.

As for the Democrats, after standing at the master fund-raiser's side for two campaigns, Vice President Al Gore already knows where the big campaign bucks are buried. He'd better. His goal is $35 million to $40 million, more than either the '92 or '96 campaigns raised.

At this point former Sen. Bill Bradley is the only Democrat actively nipping at Gore's heels. But all this money raising raises concerns that politics will no longer be an option for candidates of modest means.

According to Chuck Lewis of the Center for Public Integrity, "Today, you have two types of candidates running for president, millionaires or people who are willing to spend time with people that most of us wouldn't want to spend time with."

If history is any indication, whoever is able to raise the most money will be the party's nominee. That's the way it's been for every presidential election since 1976.