Today is the first major deadline for 2016 presidential campaigns to file their finance reports. Since most of the candidates hadn’t declared before March 31, the end of the last reporting period, much of the focus is on who won’t be filing a report. But thousands of other committees will be reporting donations and spending from the first three months of the year, and here are some of the key points from them:  Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican senator who was the first to officially announce his candidacy, raised $4.3 million in the final days of March, including $250,000 transferred from his Senate campaign. He spent $371,513 during that period. In addition to soliciting small-dollar donors online, Mr. Cruz collected donations for the primary limit of $2,700 from 193 individuals, and donations of $5,400, which represents the limit for both the primary and the general election, from another 57 (money given for the general election cannot be spent during the primary).  His supporters’ exuberance was such that 37 individuals sent him checks for $10,800, which is twice the limit; his campaign issued more than 80 refunds for those who went over the limit, including four to members of the McNair family in Houston (Robert McNair owns the Houston Texans N.F.L. team).  The super PACs supporting Mr. Cruz and other candidates and potential candidates won’t start reporting their contributions until July, but those supporting Mr. Cruz are reported to have raised over $30 million already.  Ben Carson, the pediatric neurosurgeon who is exploring a candidacy, raised $2.1 million for his exploratory committee during the first quarter, mostly from donors giving less than $200 each. Mr. Carson loaned his committee $25,000. His committee paid more than $200,000 to TMA Direct, which offers email marketing and other fund-raising services, and spent a total of $480,157 for the period.  Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican senator who declared his presidential candidacy on Monday, won’t file his first campaign finance report until July 15. But he has an existing joint fund-raising committee that reported raising $1.8 million during the first three months of the year, with most of that going to his Senate campaign committee and Reclaim America PAC, his leadership committee. The money in his Senate committee can be transferred to his presidential campaign, and there’s no reason to think it wouldn’t be, as Mr. Rubio is not running for re-election.  Rand Paul’s presidential campaign also won’t file its first report until July, but his affiliated committee, the Rand Paul Victory Committee, reported raising $332,000 during the first three months of the year. That money will be split between his presidential campaign, his Senate campaign and his leadership PAC, but none of them got any contributions from this committee.  Mr. Paul’s presidential campaign has raised more than $2 million via his website from more than 30,000 donations. Much of that came in during the first four days after his campaign announcement; the average online contribution was about $60. One of the interesting donors to his joint committee was from the Orange County, Fla., Republican party committee, which gave Mr. Paul $5,000 in March. The local party committee had never made a contribution to a non-Florida candidate, according to F.E.C. data.  Many of the congressional candidates who raised the most money in the first quarter aren’t saving all of it for their own campaigns. Elected party leaders like Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, and Steve Scalise, the House Republican whip, have reported raising $510,008 and $488,923, respectively, for their campaign committees. But much of that money is sent on to party organizations.  Ms. Pelosi’s campaign sent $285,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and an additional $28,000 directly to fellow Democrats, while Mr. Scalise’s joint fund-raising committee gave $323,915 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, records show. Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader, gave $527,782 to the N.R.C.C. from his joint fund-raising committee.  With a larger majority, House Republicans will have more incumbents to protect, although relatively few of them should be in real electoral danger next year. But one test of leadership’s effectiveness is whether lawmakers help their leaders by contributing campaign money to party committees. Leading by example is one way to encourage the rank and file, but it is no guarantee of early support. Lawmakers may want to wait and see how their own races shape up before giving from their campaigns.  You can tell the House candidates who expect to have difficult races, or those looking to ward off that possibility, by the lopsidedness of their filings: lots of contributions, few expenditures. Monica Vernon, a Democrat running in Iowa’s northeast district, reported receiving $300,000, including $110,000 of her own money, but she spent exactly $10,526 during the first quarter. Hoarding as much money as possible early in the campaign can help to impress future donors and scare off potential challengers.  John Katko, a New York Republican who unseated a Democratic incumbent last year for his Syracuse-area seat, raised $299,000 in the first quarter, including $20,000 of his own money, and spent $67,321. Mr. Katko was among those incumbents targeted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in a February memo.  Raul Ruiz, a California Democrat who first won his House seat in 2012 and won last year by seven percentage points, raised $381,056 in the first quarter and spent $66,723. He ended March with $687,534 in cash, which could help discourage potential Republican opponents. The same is true of Gwen Graham, a Florida Democrat who defeated a Republican incumbent in 2014. She raised $526,636 in the first quarter and spent just $53,167.  There will be candidates who have little choice about spending money early to introduce themselves to voters or to mount broad fund-raising campaigns, but those who can reserve a significant portion of their campaign cash have an edge over potential opponents. If members of Congress aren’t raising much money but are spending more than they take in, chances are they don’t have much of a race.  For some political committees, the first quarter is a good time to look back at the last two years (or more) and make sure that the money is accounted for and properly reported. For former members of Congress, this winding-down process can produce some unexpected discoveries. David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat who retired in 2010, had an accountant examine his campaign finances and discovered that his campaign had $57,347 less in cash than it had reported to the F.E.C. The accountant “was not able to identify exactly when the error occurred or exactly how it occurred.”  The campaign of Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota Republican who ran for president in 2012 and retired from Congress last year, reported paying $86,755 in income taxes to the Internal Revenue Service last month. The committee had no employees during the first quarter, so it’s likely that the payment was not for current taxes but for back taxes (political committees don’t pay tax on contributions they receive, but they do pay payroll taxes on campaign staff salaries).
A filing deadline offers a glimpse into the money raised, spent and hoarded in various political races past, present and future.