Bee and Giffords nearly tie in Q1 totals

Name recognition, high-powered fundraisers and a motivated base came together to push State Sen. Pres. Tim Bee (R-Tucson) over the $465,000 in dollars raised between Jan. 1 and Mar. 31. According to a campaign press release, Bee starts the spring with $525,000 on hand.

“I am truly thankful for the encouragement we have received," said Bee. "The support has been amazing and strengthens my resolve. The voters are speaking loudly and they’re saying that they want someone in Washington that will fight for them.”

Bee claims that 90 percent of his money to date has been given by individual donors. However, to drum up that kind of support, Bee earned and utilized the backing of Sens. John Kyl and John McCain. In terms of political star power, a GOP candidate can't do much better than the Senate Republican Whip and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to get donors to cough up those $2,300 max-out contributions.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-8), meanwhile, brought in over $471,000 in the first three months of 2008. She called in big guns of her own, most notably House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and, as a "front line" Democrat - one whose re-election is considered a priority for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee - can expect to get more of that level of support in the future.

Although the National Republican Campaign Committee has been lagging woefully behind the DCCC in fundraising this cycle, observers and insiders alike who are familiar with the NRCC are confident that the Tim Bee campaign will receive as much focus as it has to give, monetarily and otherwise.

Bee will need it to catch up with Giffords. Though virtually matching her Q1 total, Giffords, as a first-term incumbent in an unsafe seat, never stopped raising money after 2006. Consequently she has a huge head start on Bee.

Through Mar. 31 Giffords had raised over $1.9 million, and ended the quarter with $1.67 million cash on hand. Bee has raised $760,000, according to the campaign, but in a race that is expected to be very tight coming down to the wire, he will want to overtake her in the money game at some point - or at least stay right on her heels.