As we head into late October, we can see the one year mark from the general election not far away. As the debates continue, individual State primaries begin in less than three months. The GOP field hasn't seen anyone leave the campaign trail just yet. As we approach the primaries, we'll see most donations targeted to the candidates that can make a serious case to defeat President Obama next year. Fundraising is key, and a few candidates are in serious trouble on this front. Stars have risen and fallen over the last few months and through it all, Mitt Romney just keeps shining. Currently the #1 candidate to represent the Republican Party to push Obama to the unemployment line, Mr. Romney has money, momentum and most importantly, apparently no equals in the race for the nomination.

NEXT DEBATE: November 9th, 2011 on CNBC...

This week's rankings:

1) Mitt Romney-Yes, Perry and Santorum knocked him around in the last debate, but to what end? Absorbing mostly body blows, Romney leads the pack in Gallups Ballot Support rankings and recognition, sits 2nd in positive intensity to only Herman Cain. Compared to Rick Perry who sits sixth in the positive intensity rankings. Despite the fuss that Bachmann, Perry and now Mr. Cain have generated enough long lasting heat to make things uncomfortable for Romney. Financially, Romney had the second highest donations, $14 Million, which was just under Perry's take of 17 Million. Romney is in good shape going forward...

2) Herman Cain-Mr. Cain got a rough ride at the start of the last GOP debate but was able to hang on long enough to allow the Romney/Perry sideshow take over. Cain has made nice progress over the last several week in both polls and fundraising. Speaking of fundraising, Cain made a personal loan of $175K to his own campaign. Having raised only 2.8M in the last quarter, this is an area where his recent wave of popularity will need to translate to money. While Romney and Perry both brought in at least 14 million, less than 3 million won't cut it.


3) Rick Perry-Last quarter's biggest fundraising champion, Perry has shown an ability to quickly raise some cash, albeit most of it from his home state of Texas. Debates are clearly not his strong suit and his roughing up of Romney seems to have turned off as many as it impressed. Despite his fanfare, Perry's national numbers have slid backwards since he officially joined the campaign, which is a very bad sign. Lots of problems facing Perry right now.

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