The Money Game

In the post-Citizens United world of campaign finance, whoever runs out of money first loses the race. Rick Perry and Scott Walker ran out of cash and closed shop, and with third quarter campaign fundraising figures now out, the candidates who have raised tens of millions will go on. It's the candidates who have raised only chump change in comparison who are on the way out, and top of that list of losers running out of money is Bobby Jindal.

Thursday could mark the beginning of the end for Bobby Jindal’s increasingly slim presidential hopes.

The Louisiana governor’s campaign reported having just $260,000 to spend at the end of September after raising a little over half a million dollars and spending significantly more than that in the third quarter. It’s a paltry sum compared to his rivals, and if Jindal can’t jumpstart his White House bid soon, he could be headed the way of Rick Perry and Scott Walker, who ended their campaigns when their coffers ran dry.

Jindal’s haul—or lack thereof—was the most ominous signal that came from the quarterly FEC filing deadline on Thursday, which showed that the top two Democrats, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, each raised more money between June and September than any of the 15 Republicans still in the race. (Donald Trump, of course, has access to more money than any of them through his own personal wealth.) Clinton raised $28 million and Sanders raised $26 million. Ben Carson’s rise to a close second in the polls was reflected in his fund-raising, as he led the GOP field by taking in $20 million in the third quarter. 

Perry ran out of cash, Walker is a million in debt now, and Jindal will soon join them. And it says the world that Ben Carson has gotten $20 million dollars from people. Fool and his money are soon parted, I guess.