The Iowa caucuses that kick off the presidential campaign are nearly a year - and $100 million - away.

No one’s doubting that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), has the capacity to raise at least that much, and according to the San Jose Mercury-News, other contenders believe they do as well.

To wage a serious presidential campaign in 2008, the ante is $50 million by December 31, 2007, said an adviser to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

And that’s just a cover charge.

To reach that daunting sum, a candidate must bring in an average of nearly $2 million a week, or $274,000 a day, all raised in increments limited to no more than $2,100 per person.

Start late or fall behind and the burden increases.

Clinton and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson joined in the competition for campaign money this month, announcing the formation of their presidential exploratory committees less than a week after Obama entered the race.

In this election, candidates court well-heeled, well-connected supporters who can bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars from wealthy friends and business contacts.

They will commute back and forth among New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Palm Beach, Fla., and other money centers for mammoth events that in some cases may raise $1 million or more in an evening.

They will hone sophisticated marketing campaigns that use Internet sites, videos and e-mail to galvanize large followings of dedicated supporters whose modest individual contributions can add up to staggering sums.

Federal Election Commission member Michael Toner predicts an unprecedented fundraising sprint during the first six months of this year, with up to $50 or $60 million raised by the end of June and $100 million by the end of the year for the serious contenders.

Presidential election campaigns regularly set records for their cost, but this time, there is an extraordinary confluence of factors that will drive the costs of early primaries especially high:

• The highly front-loaded schedule. In the Democratic Party, contests are tentatively scheduled in Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina within a 15-day span in January.
• Defections from public financing. Previously, there were strict limits on spending for primaries in exchange for federal matching funds. Now, the contenders almost universally will eschew it.
• No incumbents. The field of candidates is unusually crowded, with no sitting president or vice president running for the first time since 1952, creating a wide open field. A big war chest shows strength and helps generate attention from media and voters.

George W. Bush opted out of public financing system during the primaries in 2000. John Kerry and Howard Dean both declined public financing for the 2004 primaries and went on to lead the Democratic field.

Clinton already has declared she will forgo public financing in both the primary and general election campaigns to avoid the spending limits.

Most candidates and campaign advisers deliberately play down expectations for fundraising, anxious to avoid perceptions that they are under-performing, should they fall short.

But a confidential campaign strategy memo prepared for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is considering a run for the GOP nomination, leaked to the media recently and offered an inside glimpse of his fundraising plans.

His advisers calculated he would need to raise $100 million by December 31 of 2007. Likewise, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican who has created an exploratory committee for a presidential run, has set a goal of $100 million by the end of 2007.

Clinton starts with more than $14 million left over from her Senate campaign last year that she can transfer directly to her presidential campaign - a considerable down payment toward $100 million.

There’s also the fact that the Clintons have cultivated key Democratic fundraisers and donors since before Bill Clinton’s election as president in 1992, and the former first lady has accrued plenty of political and social IOUs. In her husband, she has a partner with almost unmatched appeal to party donors, and in the Senate, she has represented the nation’s most important financial center for more than six years.

Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), himself a presidential candidate and vice presidential nominee in 2004, built his funding base for his last campaign and has had plenty of time to nurture it again.

Obama and most other candidates have to rapidly assemble their own fundraising networks, filled with the kind of people willing and able to ask friends for big-dollar donations and serve on the host committees that make sure that $2,100-a-seat fundraising dinners are sold out.

“Even if you’re Barack Obama or John McCain, you can’t just show up in Los Angeles,” said Monica Notzon, a Republican fundraiser. “There is a whole bunch of legwork they hopefully have done already.”

On the strength of his electrifying speech at the 2004 DNC, a compelling biography and his compelling personal presence, Barack Obama has attracted an influential group of financial backers.

Investor Warren Buffett and Hollywood moguls Jeffrey Katzenberg, David Geffen and Steven Spielberg are among past supporters of Obama’s political action committee, Hopefund.

Corporations are prohibited from donating directly to campaigns; only individuals and political action committees can give candidates contributions.

The Internet opens the potential for a flood of additional money, particularly for a candidate who can generate excitement because of his personality or a cause.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), took in a surge of money after winning the 2000 New Hampshire primary and setting a political style embodied by the name of his campaign bus, the “Straight Talk Express.”

With his anti-war crusade, Dean attracted legions of givers through his website, bringing in more than $30 million from small-dollar donors who contributed no more than $200 each.

Broadband access is now much more common. People have grown accustomed to electronic commerce to entering their credit card numbers on a website and spending money with the click of a mouse. Most political strategists believe the potential for raising money online is even greater now.

“The real thing to watch is who’s going to electrify the low-dollar donors,” Smith said. “You can get to $40 million or $50 million very quickly.”