Dean Campaign Still Making Money

MONTPELIER, Vt. – Howard Dean's (search) presidential campaign is still making money, even though the former Vermont governor dropped his bid for the White House in February.

The campaign received $626,615 in contributions last month, according to a filing this week with the Federal Election Commission (search). His campaign had $2 million in the bank and owed $1.2 million at the end of March, and was owed $67,266.

Dean's staff spent much of March closing down the campaign and starting work on his new grass-roots group, Democracy for America.

His expenditures included $202,352 to his polling firm, Fairbanks, Maslin Maulin; and $156,359 to Trippi, McMahon and Squier, the Virginia-based firm run by Dean's former campaign manager, Joe Trippi. The money was used to reimburse the firm for television advertisements it bought for the campaign.

The campaign also paid $28,000 to The Dean Team, a separate consulting entity set up by and housed in the same offices as Trippi's firm. The campaign paid $140,984 to the Syntech Goup, a Virginia-based company that processes campaign contributions and helps campaigns prepare FEC reports.

The campaign also returned $57,653 to contributors who asked for their money back.