Pawlenty three-month haul: $4.2 million

Facing the next major milestone of the 2012 presidential campaign, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced that Friday afternoon that he raised $4.2 million over the past three months, a figure that will likely be eclipsed by fellow Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann and other major candidates in the GOP field. Bachmann, who just launched her campaign two weeks ago, raised $1.7 million for her congressional campaign in the first three months of the year, money which can be transferred to her presidential campaign, which has yet to report its second-quarter totals. Meanwhile, presumptive front-runner Mitt Romney, who hauled in more than $10 million in a single day in May, has signaled that he will raise nearly $20 million for the three-month period that ended Thursday. The campaigns are required to report their full second-quarter 2011 fundraising reports to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) by July 15, but Pawlenty decided to release his total early. Pawlenty, coming off a rough stretch in the wake of his subpar performance at a GOP presidential debate in New Hampshire, has been on an East Coast fundraising swing, travelling to New York, Atlanta and Florida. While his cash haul is unlikely to impress rivals and political observers, his campaign put his financial position in the best light possible. Pawlenty spokesman Alex Conant said Pawlenty "begins the third quarter with more available cash-on-hand than the Republicans who won the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary had in July 2007." Conant's statement references 2008 Iowa caucuses victor Mike Huckabee, who had $437,000 cash on hand in July 2007, and New Hampshire '08 primary winner John McCain, who had $3.2 million in the bank but $1.8 million in debts at this point in the 2008 cycle. That would mean Pawlenty has at least $1.4 million cash on hand to start the third quarter. Bachmann had $2.9 million cash in hand in her congressional committee at the end of the first quarter, and is expected to have added significantly to that total in the past two weeks as she has shot up in the polls. Bachmann, a prodigious fundraiser with a vast network of small-dollar donors, raised more than $13 million for her 2010 House reelection campaign, a House record.