Rand Paul could be the next Republican to quit the presidential race, GOP strategists say, if his fortunes don't turn around fast.

Paul's campaign has the 'stench of death' around it, one strategist with senior level experience on a presidential campaign said, and another questioned the depth of his war chest.

Other analysts predict a pair of 9/11 era former governors who have been out of office for roughly a decade and are polling at one percent or under will be the next to go: Virginia's Jim Gilmore and New York's George Pataki.

Ex-U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, who was ousted in 2006, topped short lists, as well.

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BYE BYE RAND? Paul's campaign has a 'stench of death' around it - just like the first two flame outs - Rick Perry and Scott Walker - one GOP strategist said

Several names other have bubbled up to top of the list as the next to go, too, including Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, left, and former New York Gov. George Pataki, right

'Rand Paul’s campaign [reeks] of the same stench of death that surrounded the [Rick] Perry and [Scott] Walker efforts before their demise,' one GOP strategist said.

Adding, 'Paul’s polling is anemic, his fundraising his lagging, his campaign is disorganized and he is in danger of getting bumped off the main debate stage. He also has to consider when its time to cut bait and focus on running for reelection to the Senate. His time is running short. '

U.S. Senate seats come up for re-election every six years on a staggered basis. Paul's seat is up in 2016. He twisted arms in the Kentucky GOP to get the rules changed such that he could compete for Congress and the White House at the same time.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio's seat is also up for grabs. He declined to run for it again, though, in order to spend more time campaigning nationally.

Paul had $4.2 million in his campaign coffers as of June 30, the last time candidates had to open up their checkbooks for the Federal Elections Commission. They have to file reports with the FEC again at the beginning of October.

In a Fox News poll published yesterday, Paul was tied for tenth with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

Rick Wilson, a GOP strategist who lives in Florida, said of Paul in an email to DailyMail.com, 'He's in such strange spot; dissonant on foreign policy at a time where the world looks mighty hostile, not charismatic to post up against Trump, not getting a flood of donor money.'

'Unlike the Gilmore, Pataki, Santorum tranche, Rand can live off the land for a while,' he said, 'but he's not going to get a breakthrough in the current climate and I suspect he doesn't want to go into debt.'

Gilmore didn't announce his candidacy until after the last federal filing deadline for presidential candidates, so nothing definitive is known about his fundraising, and his campaign didn't respond to an inquiry from DailyMail.com about the campaign's finances.

He's spent little time on the trail, however, and his polling has been so low that CNN cut him from the undercard debate it aired last week before the main event. He live-tweeted his responses to his opponents' statements, instead, to his fewer than 1,500 followers on Twitter.

GOP strategist Cheri Jacobus said her personal preference would be for Trump to pull his name from consideration but her realistic expectation is that Gilmore or 'one of the lower-tiered candidates' will be the next to go, citing the debate as part of her rationale.

Pataki had roughly $200,000 cash on hand, federal records showed, and had raised a paltry $1.1 million since his late May announcement. His Super PAC had another $900,000, but only $100,000 of it was left by the end of July.

A spokesman for Pataki's campaign, David Catalfamo, pushed back on the suggestion that his candidate would be the next to go.

'We have a campaign built for a marathon, not a sprint,' he said. 'From day one of his campaign Governor Pataki has had a "positive conservative" message and he will continue to share that message with voters across America.'

Spokespersons for Santorum and Paul had nothing to say.

A GOP communications guru said Rick Santorum, pictured on Monday at a sparsely attended town hall in Iowa on Monday, should be the next to say farewell because 'his demographic is the same as [Mike] Huckabee’s, more or less, and why go with Santorum when you can get the cheerier, funnier version?'

Liz Mair, an online communications guru who has done work for Paul, Walker, Perry and Fiorina, said Santorum should say farewell because 'his demographic is the same as [Mike] Huckabee’s, more or less, and why go with Santorum when you can get the cheerier, funnier version?'

Huckabee and Santorum are both banking on Iowa to stay alive in the race. The former won the state in 2008. The latter came out the victor in 2012 after a protracted protracted recount that lasted days.

Santorum received one percent of the vote in the Fox News survey to Huckabee's six percent.

The ex-senator had collected less money than his rival in the first part few months of the campaign season, too. He had $200,000 to his name then compared to Huckabee's $900,000.

FOLLOW THE MONEY The timing of Scott Walker's entry and exit from the 2016 race - all in the same fiscal quarter - masks how much his campaign brought in and how quickly it guzzled up what it had. The last time the Federal Elections Commission obtained paperwork from 2016 candidates was June 30. Walker announced he was joining the race on July 13. He suspended his campaign on September 21. The next filing deadline is September 30. Candidates who appeared to be circling the drain at the end of June: Mike Huckabee, Carly Fiorina, George Pataki and Rick Santorum. The foursome had less than a million cash on hand each. Donald Trump reported half a million in his campaign account, but he is self-funding, and the billionaire can transfer money to his campaign any time he wants to. Another candidate who is presumed to be struggling financially, is Jim Gilmore. But for the same reasons as Walker, Gilmore's financial health is unknown. Advertisement

Lindsey Graham, another candidate who's completely failed to gain traction, has more money at is disposal than the rest of the bottom tier combined - $2.6 million - thanks to a steady flow of checks from regular contributors to his Senate campaign such as Secretary of State to Ronald Reagan George Shultz and General Electric CEO, Jeffrey Immelt.

Then there's Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.

Jindal had just half a million left at the end of the last fiscal quarter. He's in danger of going broke like Walker and Perry, too, if he doesn't find a new source of cash.

Walker suddenly exited the 2016 competition this week amid rumors his donor dollars were drying up and lay-offs were on the way.

A CNN/ORC International poll released the morning of his departure had him receiving less than one half of a percent, shoving him to the back of the pack with the likes of Gilmore, Pataki, Jindal, Santorum and Graham.

In his exit remarks, Walker called on his 15 other competitors 'to consider doing the same so the voters can focus on a limited number of candidates who can offer a positive conservative alternative to the current front-runner' - Donald Trump.

Al Cardenas, a former chairman of the Florida Republican party and a former chairman of the American Conservative Union, told DailyMail.com that candidates who have given the race their all and still aren't gaining traction should reflect on Walker's suggestion that they leave the race.

'Enough time has, by now, gone by for a candid assessment of where [each] campaign is currently,' he said, in terms of polling, resources and standing in the early primary states.

He suggested that the criteria for future debates could force some candidates out.

The networks, not the Republican Party, make those rules. The next GOP debate, on October 28 in Boulder, Colorado, will be hosted by CNBC. The network has indicated the theme of the debate will be the economy and that it may not allow all the candidates to participate.

'Soon only candidates polling 3% and then 5% will be able to appear in the upcoming debates,' Cardenas said, and 'we are within 60 days - at most- of beginning to spend serious resources and deploying "feet on the ground" activists.'

He said, 'Each campaign needs to ask itself: can we do this?'

Drawing from the example of Carly Firorina, who catapulted her way into the first tier with a strong, August, debate performance, Cardenas said, October's match-up may be the 'last opportunity to get a 'Fiorina restart' and some candidates may wait til then to see if 'lightning strikes'.

UNEXPECTED EXIT: Scott Walker shook up the 2016 presidential race this week when he suddenly quit the contest amid rumors his donor dollars were drying up and lay-offs were on the way. In his final speech of the campaign, he called on his competitors to do the same to make way for a conservative alternative to Donald Trump

Walker's dramatic and unexpected withdraw demonstrated just how difficult it can be for even the most experienced political analysts to read the tea the leaves.

It also disproved the notion that cash-rich Super PACs, a relatively new concept in in the political process, can carry a candidate through the primary.

Perry's committees had $17 million in the bank, their July 31 filings show, when his campaign went bankrupt in early August. He stopped paying most of his staff in early August, and many jumped ship as a result, leaving his PAC to do his heavy lifting in the race.

Super PACs can produce ads promoting their affiliated candidate and they can even do grassroots work. They cannot, however, pay for a campaign's travel or the salaries of its staff, as they're not legally allowed to coordinate directly with candidates or political parties.

They're further barred from paying ballot access fees.

Without a full-time staff, or the ability to hop from state to state anymore, Perry withered on the vine.

Facing the same fate, Walker recused himself from the race, even though his Unintimidated PAC reported $19 million cash on hand the last time it had to disclose its finances.

ON THE ROPES: Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, pictured here in Des Moines on Saturday at a conservative dinner, Jindal, is tied with Pataki, Gilmore and Sen. Lindsay Graham for last in the race

Because of the timing of Walker's announcement, at the beginning of July, it's not clear how much his much his campaign brought in separately or how quickly it guzzled up what it had.

However much it was, the Wisconsin governor ultimately concluded it wasn't enough to get him through the grueling primary season, which is expected to last at least another five months.

Cardenas believes several other candidates will soon arrive at the same conclusion.

'We know that Jeb Bush, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and perhaps Marco Rubio have the resources to meet these early tests,' he said.

'We also know that Gov. Gilmore, Gov. Pataki, Gov. Jindal, Sen. Graham, Gov. [Chris] Christie and perhaps Sen. Paul are not there and that Dr. [Ben] Carson, [Carly] Fiorina, Gov. [John] Kasich, and Huckabee have done well enough so far to possibly get there in the next 30-45 days, but it remains to be seen whether they can because they are not ready yet.'

Of the candidates he said are nowhere close - Gilmore, Pataki, Jindal, Graham, Christie and Paul - he said, 'It's not impossible, but it's highly unlikely that the rest can create much traction and should consider following Gov Walker's advice.'