WashPost Reports McCain $$$ Operation Overhaul “Hasn’t Worked Out Too Well”
On Saturday, the Washington Post reported the following information about the McCain finance sector. Although half of the article discussed similar problems plaguing Democratic hopeful John Edwards, the authors opted to go with Senator McCain as their lead; further McCain-related excerpts follow the first two paragraphs of a two-page article:
“Twelve weeks ago, after raising less money than two other Republican candidates for the first three months of 2007, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the early favorite for his party’s presidential nomination, declared that it was his fault, said he hoped “to get better” at it and reorganized his finance team.
This week he said it hasn’t worked out too well, acknowledging that raising money is “very tough” and allowing that “we weren’t going to win this campaign on money anyway.”…
Edwards and McCain are two prominent victims of the widening money gap between the front-runners and the rest of the field, a separation that will be apparent when the campaigns file their fundraising reports for the second quarter, which ends next Saturday…
Among the Republicans, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani are said to be repeating their impressive first-quarter takes.
Former senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee, who is not yet officially a candidate, seems on track to reach his goal of raising about $5 million in just one month, according to advisers….
But every candidate in the race — 11 Republicans (including Thompson) and eight Democrats — will spend the next week in a fundraising sprint…
After raising $13 million in the first quarter, McCain scheduled 28 fundraising events for June and has nine more to go, his spokesman said…
It’s a different game for the financially struggling campaigns, which are already attempting to explain away their less-than-stellar performances.
Spokesmen for both McCain and Edwards insist that they will have enough money to campaign vigorously throughout the primary season. And they plan to stress that they have increased their overall numbers of donors, a key sign of grass-roots strength this early in the election process…
Brian Jones, a McCain spokesman, said his candidate’s “principled stands” on tough issues are to blame for the fundraising troubles, especially his push for broad changes in the nation’s immigration laws.
“It’s an issue that over the last month has not been a favorite of a decent number of GOP primary voters,” Jones said. “I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. We will have the resources necessary to communicate the senator’s message.”
The early start to the 2008 campaign and the large number of states holding their primaries next Feb. 5 require candidates to have huge bankrolls. And at this stage of the cycle, a campaign’s fundraising ability becomes a measure of its overall success. “The money primary keeps going,” said Alex Vogel, a GOP consultant not affiliated with any candidate. “It’s more and more like law school — there are no exams in between, and then at the end you get your final grade.”
Read the entire article here.
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