Federal Election Commission Deadline

Tonight at midnight the books close on this quarter's financial take for federal candidates. With polls all over the place the money raised will be the best indicator of where candidates are. Most campaigns will leak expected numbers soon even though they have a couple of weeks to file paperwork with the FEC.

Here are the Democratic candidates:

• US Senator Joe Biden (D-Delaware)
• US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York)
• US Senator Chris Dodd (D-Connecitcut)
• Former US Senator John Edwards (D-North Carolina)
• Former Alaska US Senator Mike Gravel (D-Virginia)
• Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio)
• US Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois)
• Governor Bill Richardson (D-New Mexico)

While all the campaign sites have links for contributions, props to the Clinton web people for being the only site making special mention of the deadline.
UPDATE- The Clinton campaign was the first to specifically mention the midnight deadline, although the Dodd campaign had basketball themed donation goals, complete with a scoreboard, counting the hours to midnight. Since this mornings post the Obama, Edwards and Richardson (the chili pepper) websites also pronounce Midnight as the deadline.

National Journal's Hotline had fundraising estimates yesterday. They also have a list of questions that should be used to put the numbers into context.