Connie Mack's Team Claims Fundraising Victory

U.S. Rep. Connie Macks team is having a good week. Besides leading the GOP primary field in a poll from Quinnipiac University released on Wednesday, Macks team did a very solid job of managing -- and exceeding -- fundraising expectations for the last quarter of 2011.

Jeff Cohen, the campaign manager of Macks bid for the Republican nomination to challenge Democrat U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, sent out an email to supporters on Thursday in which he noted the campaign brought in more than $758,000 and had almost $918,000 in the bank.

Last week I said that I believed our campaign would exceed our $500,000 fundraising goal for the fourth quarter. Thanks to you, boy, did we ever, Cohen wrote. In fact, Connies campaign for the U.S. Senate raised more than $750,000 and now has nearly $1 million cash on hand.

The figures for the money raised do not include any transfer from Connies previous re-election campaign funds, Cohen added. Those funds are reflected in the campaigns overall cash on hand.

Mack had a short quarter, making his haul even more impressive. With the congressman having said earlier in the year that he would not enter the race, a Mack staffer announced at the end of October that his boss had changed his mind. Mack formally announced that he was running on an appearance on Sean Hannitys show on Fox News in late November.