SarahPAC Raises Nearly $500,000 In Just Over A Month

Sarah Palin's political action committee had an exceptional month leading up to the November election and beyond. Time Magazine reports:

Sarah Palin raised $469,000 between Oct. 13 and Nov. 22 bringing her total for the year to over $3 million, Tim Crawford, SarahPAC's treasurer, told TIME exclusively. Crawford attributed the surge of funds to energy surrounding the midterm elections, Palin's endorsements and her TLC reality show “Sarah Palin's Alaska.” Her second book, America By Heart, came out Nov. 23.

The PAC spent $64,000 buying advance copies of her books, “just as we did last year” with her first book, Going Rogue, Crawford said. “They're a great fundraising tool for us.” Palin is in the midst of a two-week cross-country book tour.

Overall the PAC spent $581,000 between Oct. 13 and Nov. 22. A larger percentage than normal was spent on contributions to political candidates, $244,000, as Palin tried to help her 81-endosed candidates over the Nov. 2 finish line. Fifty-five of them won.

All of the $469,000 was raised online or through direct mail. The former Alaska governor has had only two fundraisers for her PAC this year – the last one this past summer -- compared to Mitt Romney's nine. Crawford expects to file his report to the Federal Election Commission this afternoon.

This is a strong showing, and yet another sign that Sarah Palin is a political powerhouse. Time gets the endorsement/win ratio wrong though, as she endorsed ninety-four candidates in local, state, and national races. Sixty-three won.

It's quite remarkable that Sarah only had the need for two fund raising events vs Romney's nine.

Though we'll have to wait for the reports, it's known Romney is raising most of his money from big donors, corporate and special interests, while Sarah's money, for the most part, comes in small amounts of $200 or less. Her new book, America by Heart, was used as a premium to generate funds as well, with donors who sent in $100 getting a signed copy. She did this last year with Going Rogue.

This effort tells us that Sarah is poised to make a strong effort should she run for President. It will take an incredible amount of money to compete against Barack Obama. Only two seem capable of this, Sarah and Mitt Romney. Over at HuckPAC, Mike Huckabee's effort seems to have imploded, and others like Newt Gingrich simply aren't raising any dollars.

This may set us up for the inevitable Palin vs Romney showdown in the primaries, and with all of Romney's baggage he's not going to be competitive against Sarah's record of successful leadership.

We expect Sarah to announce her intentions early in 2011.