Sen. John McCain raised more than $6 million during his 2.5 day/6 fundraiser Florida swing at the beginning of this week, a source tells Fox.

During his time in the Sunshine State, McCain raised more than one-third of his entire March money total ($15 million) in less than three days.The establishment of the joint McCain-RNC victory fund at the beginning of April is allowing big donors to give upwards of $70,000, which is then distributed to a number of accounts.

Campaign officials say they are extremely pleased by the number of Romney, Huckabee and Giuliani donors and finance staffers coming aboard. The campaign expects both Romney and Giuliani to attend fundraisers next week in MI and NY respectively. Next Wednesday night’s Manhattan fundraiser is expected to bring in more than $2.5 million alone.

Campaign advisers acknowledge that McCain will never be able to achieve the online and small donor totals of either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton–meaning McCain will have to stick to event-based fundraising for big money–but is now bringing in at least $500,000 per fundraising event.

Former GOP presidential candidate and close McCain friend, Fred Thompson, is set to join the presumptive GOP nominee during his visit to North Carolina next week. Since losing the South Carolina primary on Jan. 18, Thompson has been absent from the limelight-even choosing to drop out of the race via written statement.

McCain is set to make a timely visit to the Tar Heel State, where primary voters go to the polls on Tuesday, and hopes to scoop up some media coverage. He is set to hit Charlotte on Monday and deliver a speech at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem the next day.

In recent weeks, McCain has campaigned with both Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. While there was a lot of VP buzz when the AZ Senator was joined by Romney and Huckabee, expect a lot less around Fred—the former TN Senator even told Fox News last week that a number 2 slot is “not in the cards.”

McCain is also set to attend a big $$ NYC fundraiser in New York City next Wednesday where yet another former rival–Rudy Giuliani–will be in attendance.

Denver, CO–

Mitt Romney was welcomed to Colorado by the endorsement of the Denver Post and several hundred enthusiastic supporters at a Ford dealership today. The crowd chanted, “We want Mitt, we want Mitt!” Romney answered the boisterous crowd, “You are getting the full Monty. Don’t worry.”

After the event, Romney went outside for a press conference where a shouting war began between supporters and anti-abortion protestors. Romney previously supported abortion rights when he ran for governor in 2002, but changed his mind during his term
and now says he is staunchly anti-abortion rights.

Even with the competing camps, the press availability went on with the governor pausing and even chuckling at times because of the noise.

The campaign said yesterday that the GOP nominee would not be decided on Super Tuesday. Today, Romney addressed the February 5th contests and the potential of going past Tuesday. He admitted being incorrect in predicting what would happen in earlier primaries:

“I have been so wrong in predicting what would happen. I mean, I thought I would win Iowa, New Hampshire and Mayor Giuliani would be almost an impregnable force in Florida. And all three of those things ended up being wrong. This race has been so much more fluid then we would have expected that it’s really hard to predict what’ll happen,” Romney told reporters, “I really thought it would all be over, you know, early in January. And now we’re going to go into February, and I just can’t predict what’s going to happen in February, so you know, we’ll see what happens. I can’t predict the outcome.”

Primaries after February 5th that the campaign could focus on include Kansas, Virginia, Ohio, and Texas. But, the presidential hopeful wouldn’t let on where the campaign is eyeing next:

“I have to be honest, I’m not sure what states I’m going to focus on. Prior to February 5th, my campaign team and I looked at the map of the country. We are looking at where I’ve got the greatest support. Where I have the best chances of picking up delegates and adjusting the schedule,” Romney said, “So after February 5th what the schedule at that point will look like will surely depend on what happens on February 5th and what the lay of the political landscape is then.”

Burbank, CA — Rudy Giuliani announced that he will be withdrawing from the presidential race and will be endorsing Sen. John McCain during a media availability on his plane this afternoon. He landed in Burbank, California at about 1:45 pm,Pacific Time and is headed to the Reagan Library to make the formal announcement at 3pm.

Some highlights:

“I called some of our strong supporters and thanked them earlier today and also told them what I think you all now know, which is I am gonna endorse John McCain. It’s disappointing to lose a race for president because you believe you’re the best candidate, but I had made it clear before I had to make this decision who I thought the other best candidate was. I think I made it clear during a debate that if I had not been running, I would be supporting John McCain. So I’m not running, and I’m supporting John McCain and he is far away the best person to be the commander in chief of the United States.”

Any quid pro quo/VP slot?

“There is absolutely no understanding on any position in government. I am not seeking any position in government. I am going to be a very enthusiastic and active supporter of John McCain. I have offered, anything he or his campaign believe I can do, I will do for them……I’ve also called a lot of my people, as many as I could in this short period of time, and asked them to support Sen. McCain and so far no one has said that they wouldn’t. Some have said yes, some are thinking about it…….I’m not seeking the vice president nomination. It’s way too premature for anybody to be speculating about vice presidential candidates. I’m not seeking a position in government.”

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Delray Beach, FL — Win or lose tonight, it looks like the Giuliani campaign is making concrete plans to continue campaigning tomorrow morning.

Earlier today Rudy Giuliani told FNC that he “intended” to go to California for tomorrow night’s debate, leaving open the possibility that he might not carry on past today’s Florida primary. Florida has been described as a must-win state for the former NYC mayor and he has repeatedly told audiences here that the winner of the Sunshine State primary will be the GOP nominee.

Campaign aides now tell FNC that they are going to California regardless of the result and have set up a press charter for the trip—unusual for the campaign that rarely allows press to travel with the candidate.

This is not a guarantee that they will not change their plans if Giuliani finishes poorly tonight, but they are at least publicly acting as if they will carry on even if polls showing them lagging in the Sunshine State turn out to be true.

Pompano Beach, FL — One of the bright spots on the Giuliani campaign trail during the last week has been the omnipresent and always upbeat Jon Voight.

The award winning actor from “Deliverance” and “Midnight Cowboy” joined Giuliani on the trail two weeks ago and has been warming up audiences for him at almost every stop and spends a great deal of time joking around with the press corps.

But is Giuliani using Voight to his full potential? While much has been made of the tough guy endorsements on the GOP side—Chuck Norris (Huckabee) and Sly Stallone (McCain)—Voight’s performance in the 2004 lesser known flick, “Karate Dog,” shows that the 69-year old actor can hold his own–at least against an animated dog.

We asked him about the movie today as Voight threw a nerf football around with senior campaign adviser Tony Carbonetti at Giuliani’s Broward County headquarters. While Voight loses the fight with Karate Dog, the actor defended his abilities by noting that he was facing a “super dog.”

The actor, who also has a penchant for drawing metaphors between the campaign and his movies, said the lesson the Giuliani campaign can draw from Karate Dog, is “we’re in a battle, we have to be alert and we have got to stay away from dogs.”

Miami, FL — As he sat down for a quick breakfast on the Tuesday morning at the Rascal House Diner, Rudy Giuliani said he is taking the election one day at a time. He is concentrating on today’s must-win Florida primary.

“We are concentrated on today, today alone. I am not gonna deal with any hypothetical questions (about February 5). It would be counterproductive to do that. We’re gonna win, were gonna win today. That is our answer,” Giuliani said after greeting patrons at the Miami diner and sitting down at the counter to eat a bowl of Raisin Bran. “Were gonna win today, that is our objective. And we are headed to California tomorrow to continue to campaign.”

He also continued his call for Floridians to defy polls which show him nearly 20 points down to John McCain and Mitt Romney.

“Now we want people to come out and vote, not to be influenced one way or the other by any polls, any predictions. Polls and predictions have been wrong as often as they have been right,” he said. “And the way you prove them wrong is you go out and vote.”

Latest numbers per Nielsen Monitor-plus:

Mitt Romney has put up the most ads overall, but Rudy Giuliani ran the most spots in January.

Overall TV ad numbers:

Romney: 4,475
Giuliani: 3,067
McCain: 470

January Numbers:

Giuliani: 2,878
Romney: 1,392
McCain: 470

Clearwater, FL — Rudy Giuliani is facing a major uphill climb as he conducts a last-ditch, one-day plane tour to five Florida cities Monday. The latest Quinnipiac poll shows that the former NYC mayor has lost 50 percent of his support in the last month in his must-win state and is now down nearly 20 points to both Mitt Romney and John McCain.

LIKELY REPUBLICAN PRIMARY VOTERS

•                    1/28       1/14          12/20/07
• Giuliani       14          20                28
• Huckabee     13         19                 21
• McCain         32         22                 13
• Romney        31         19                  20

What makes the drop even more stunning is that it has taken place as the mayor dropped more than $6 million campaigning in Florida, put up nearly a dozen television ads and spent the last 20 days straight in the Sunshine State.

But, Giuliani often touts on the stump that he pulled off the “impossible” in New York, and told a Tampa audience in December, “I just don’t pray for miracles, I just don’t hope for miracles, I expect miracles.” On the first flight this morning from Orlando to Clearwater, I asked him whether he is holding true to his philosophy to always “underpromise and overdeliver,” by repeatedly stating that he will win Florida. Giuliani didn’t flinch. “We’re gonna deliver Florida,” he said. (video above)

Sanford, FL — In a new web-only ad, Rudy Giuliani is touting the fact he didn’t get the support  of the “liberal” newspapers–including the New York Times– that all endorsed John McCain.

See script after jump

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