Debbie Poochigian, one of the candidates challenging Supervisor Bob Waterston in next year's District 5 race, is running third in fund-raising, according to the political wiseguys in the county. That's true if you don't look at all the campaign statements on file in the Fresno County Elections Office.

This is the way some people see the fund-raising race so far: Clovis Council Member Nathan Magsig leads with close to $214,000, with Waterston having more than $208,000. Poochigian is third with $168,900.

But look a little deeper and you'll see that Poochigian has other money potentially at her disposal. Her father, the late Deran Koligian, still has $108,737 in his old supervisorial account. Her husband, former state Sen. Chuck Poochigian, has $148,848 in his account from his unsuccessful run for attorney general last year.

It's unclear whether Debbie Poochigian can transfer all of that money to her supervisorial campaign. But if she can, she has $426,485 available without holding another fund-raiser. Maybe she won't be able to use all that money because of campaign laws, and maybe her husband will want to keep his campaign account open in case he runs for something in 2010.

But just maybe she is way ahead of her opponents already and they don't even know it. Some think this will be a million-dollar race, with three experienced and well-funded politicians running. Poochigian has proven in dozens of campaigns over a generation that she's a major fund-raiser for others. That's a lot of IOUs, and she hasn't even asked donors to dig deeply into their pockets yet. She could be a million-dollar candidate all by herself.