"I have to look at myself in the mirror"

When reporters at the Palm Beach Post asked Lawton Chiles why he stubbornly stuck to his campaign limit of $100 a person in the last and toughest election of his career against Jeb Bush, he was firm.

"I won't do it. I have to look at myself in the mirror."

He must have been pretty sure he could catch magic in a bottle one more time, after doing it so many times before.

In his first bid for the governorship in 1990, he and running mate Buddy MacKay raised $5.2 million from 75,000 contributors who gave an average of $70 each.

To give a sense of perspective, top fund raiser Mitt Romney (R) in his bid for the White House 2008 has so far (since the last disclosure on July 15) raised about $34 million from only about 21,000 individual contributors.

And Chiles was only running in one state!