Fundraising: Fred's struggles
Posted: Monday, October 01, 2007 9:47 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Democrats, Republicans
Here's something to compare Thompson's money to: the 1st Q numbers of his three main rivals: Romney raised 21.2M; Giuliani raised 16.6M; McCain raised 13M.
By comparison, Fred’s $7-8M (or even $10 million) this quarter is not great. NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell reports that sources say Fred Thompson will report in excess of $8 million, but would not say if the campaign breaks the $10 million mark in his campaign's first FEC filing. More specifically, advisors say Thompson has 70,000 individual donors, which they claim describe as "a huge signal of grassroots support." About one quarter of the money raised comes from online donors. And since his formal announcement day in early September, advisors claim they have raised 200-thousand dollars a day.
Advisors acknowledge the third-quarter filing may be "a little less than" Giuliani, but they claim their fundraising makes Thompson "competitive." They claim to "feel good." Thompson's campaign will complete its filing within a few days and does not plan to be the first campaign to announce.
Richardson announced he raised another
$5.2 million in the third quarter. Richardson spokesman Tom Reynolds tells the
AP, "This figure obviously separates us from the second-tier candidates and makes clear this is a four-person race." He may eschew public financing.
Edwards' camp, when they announced their decision to take matching funds, indicated they would raise at least $7 million. NBC/NJ’s Tricia Miller reports Edwards senior adviser Joe Trippi sent one last plea to fulfill the campaign's goal of raising $1 million online by the end of the quarter Sunday night. "Ten days ago, we put our online campaign in your hands. We did the math and told you that to stay on target we needed to raise $1 million online by midnight tonight," he wrote. "None of us knew if that was possible." Trippi wrote that the campaign needed $79,212 more by midnight in the giver's time zone.
As for the two Dem frontrunners, the Washington Post is reporting that both camps will raise more than $17 million. NBC News sources indicate both will surpass $20 million.
For some reason, this
L.A. Times piece about last-minute fundraising for Clinton led with a shot about Norman Hsu. The LAT notes had Hsu not been in jail, he would have been "an integral part of Clinton's Northern California swing. He was supposed to serve as co-host at a Clinton fundraiser Sunday evening in the Silicon Valley town of Woodside."
On the GOP side, Romney's camp announced they've raised about
$10 million and that the candidate contributed another $6-7 million.
