Dukakis Takes Early Funding Lead : FEC Report Shows Governor Ahead of Fellow Democrats

Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis jumped out to an early lead Wednesday in the Democratic presidential money sweepstakes, telling the Federal Election Commission that he had raised more than $4.2 million since launching his White House bid April 30.

Although Dukakis entered the race later than many of his rivals, his quarterly FEC filing showed more money raised than any other candidate in the 1988 presidential race except Vice President George Bush, who has raised more than $9 million.

Another Republican, Pat Robertson, claims to have raised more than $8 million, but that cannot be verified because he has declined to file his contributions reports until he formally announces his candidacy.

The government filings required by midnight Wednesday of all announced candidates are among the barometers used by political analysts and potential backers for telling which campaigns are healthy and which may appear headed for trouble.

Based only on that scale, former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt’s Democratic bid might be considered in the latter category. Babbitt, who has raised a total of $1.1 million, raised only $304,269 since the beginning of April. In that same period, he spent $818,544, in part on an early television advertising campaign in Iowa, site of the campaign’s key first nominating caucus.

Borrows From Bank

To cover his expenses, Babbitt has taken out a $230,000 loan from a Phoenix bank, and his campaign owes an additional $96,000 to campaign workers and suppliers.

However, Babbitt’s aides asserted the campaign will pick up the slack later and is in good shape. “We’re spending now rather than down the stretch” to build name identification, said campaign spokesman Mike McCurry.

Dukakis campaign aides were crowing over their candidate’s numbers--”the most money ever raised by a Democrat in the first quarter” of a campaign, said Kristin S. Demong, Dukakis’ finance director.

Dukakis raised about two-thirds of his total in his home state--including about $2 million at one $1,000-a-head fund-raiser at Boston’s Park Plaza hotel--and more than 80% of his money in the Northeast, a possible imbalance that his campaign officials hope to offset later with nationwide solicitations, Demong said. In addition to the $4.2 million raised since April, Dukakis also moved to his presidential treasury about $400,000 left over from his last campaign for governor.

Among the other Democratic candidates, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware has raised $1.5 million since April 1, bringing his total to $3.2 million; Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri raised $1.1 million for a total of $2.1 million; Sen. Albert Gore Jr. of Tennessee, who began his campaign in early April, raised $1.4 million; and Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois, who began his campaign in May, raised $906,000. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has not officially decided to run and is not filing reports with the FEC, claims to have raised about $300,000.

The three leading Republican candidates, Bush, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas and New York Rep. Jack Kemp, all announced their fund-raising totals last week. Dole raised $3.1 million since April 1, bringing his total to $3.9 million, and Kemp $3.3 million, for a total of $1.6 million. Of Bush’s $9 million, $7 million was raised in the last three months.

Among other Republican hopefuls, former Delaware Gov. Pierre S. (Pete) du Pont IV raised $890,000 since April 1, for a total of $1.4 million, and former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. reported raising a total of $462,000. Former Sen. Paul Laxalt of Nevada, who has not formally announced his candidacy, claims to have raised about $1 million.

While fund-raising accomplishments are a key early indicator of a candidate’s appeal, officials of the various campaigns say they will be looking carefully at the other side of the ledger--spending--to get early clues about rivals’ strategies.

Spending so far by most of the Democrats indicates, for example, that the candidates are downplaying the traditional importance of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary and emphasizing, instead, the Iowa caucuses, which precede New Hampshire’s voting, and the large group of Southern primaries that come soon after. Polls indicate that Dukakis is extremely well known, and popular, among New Hampshire’s Democrats, most of whom live within viewing range of Boston television stations.

On the Republican side, the figures indicate that Kemp is making a particularly heavy effort in Iowa. Both Kemp and Dole have spent relatively large sums in Michigan, where a complicated delegate selection process has turned into an early Republican battleground. Dole, in addition, has concentrated money on North Carolina, a state that is home both to his wife, Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Hanford Dole, and to one of the largest Republican party organizations in the South.