They all agree on this issue: money

WASHINGTON —  Twelve years ago, Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas rocked the political world when he reported that he had raised a then-stunning $13.4 million by the end of the first quarter of the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

Despite his success at impressing donors, Gramm finished fifth in the Iowa caucuses and dropped his presidential bid before voters could even cast a ballot in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary.

Nevertheless, Democratic and Republican candidates for president in 2008 are furiously raising money in the final days of the first quarter of 2007, which ends Saturday. Results that are surprising or disappointing have the potential to recast the pecking order, shifting new attention to some candidates while putting pressure on others to reconsider the race.

“It’s important because it’s the first real report card on the campaigns that’s hard to spin,” said Steve Elmendorf, who helped run Dick Gephardt’s presidential campaign and then John Kerry’s in 2004. “Either you’ve got some money or you don’t.”

The ability to raise money is crucial because it allows a candidate to communicate his or her message to voters, especially in large states where expensive television advertising is essential. It also enables candidates to put together a large infrastructure for staff and technology.

“It’s not a leading indicator that you’re going to win, but if you don’t have it, you’re not going to win,” said Charles Black Jr., a longtime Republican consultant who helped Gramm in 1996 and is backing Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) now.

Recognizing that, major candidates have been scrambling.

During this week alone, McCain has traveled to New York; New Jersey; the Texas cities of Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Dallas; as well as the Florida cities of Orlando, Ponte Vedra Beach and Vero Beach, in order to raise money.

Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, put pressure on potential donors with an e-mail Thursday titled “Big Splash,” urging them to act.

“Are you ready to steer our nation and our Republican Party back onto the path of conservative principles that have long created jobs, protected families, kept taxes low and made our nation the world’s greatest hope for freedom?” Romney asked in the e-mail. “If your answer is ‘yes,’ then I need your help in the next 48 hours.”

On the Democratic side, former President Clinton last week sent a videotaped e-mail pitch to potential contributors to his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. Today, Hillary Clinton will be raising money in Boston, and Saturday she is holding a major fundraiser in Miami with hip-hop star Timbaland.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) urged people in an e-mail to “be counted” and help impress the media and the pundits who, he suggested, value the bottom line more than ideas.

“The number of people giving shows the wide breadth of support for a campaign that seeks a new kind of politics,” Obama wrote. “The number of donations reveals the depth of people’s commitment, because so many people give small amounts again and again.”

His campaign announced Thursday that 73,119 people have made 96,941 donations.

But whether any candidate significantly exceeds or falls short of expectations, the competitive nature of the campaign ensures that collectively they will have raised a significant amount.

“I think there’s no doubt it’s going to be the most ... money ever raised in the first quarter of a presidential race,” said Michael Toner, former chairman of the Federal Election Commission.