GreenvilleOnline: McCain raises at least $72,500 at pair of SC fundraisers - and he says he can “out-campaign and out-message” rivals
Dan Hoover of the Greenville Times reported on Senator McCain’s pair of fundraisers in South Carolina on Tuesday, as well as his 3 PM press conference sandwiched between them. Here are some excerpts:
His presidential campaign is fading in the polls, dismal fundraising has sparked questions about long-term viability, and Monday the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to his landmark bipartisan campaign finance reform legislation.
That’s the way things have been going for Arizona Sen. John McCain.
But during a campaign stop in Greenville to pick up an endorsement from Mayor Knox White, McCain described his campaign as “extremely healthy” and sloughed off a decline in state and national polls as “the ups and downs in campaigning.
“We’re going to be back on the bus, we’re going to have town hall meetings; we’re going to be just fine,” he said.
“I can out-campaign and out-message and, certainly I’m not the young candidate,” the 70-year-old McCain said, “but I’m the most prepared and I think I can prove that.”
McCain’s visit to South Carolina, a pivotal early primary state, comes at a time when part of the GOP’s conservative base is recoiling against a bipartisan immigration reform bill he helped craft and his poll ratings have plummeted.
Anticipating questions on McCain’s standing, White said, “We’re all aware of the changes in the polls as they go up and down; there seems to be a candidate de jure attitude among some voters. It’s no surprise that when candidates are ducking the hard issues…there;s John McCain, the one candidate who always tells what he really thinks.
“And he sometimes makes voters mad,” White said, citing McCain’s warnings of overspending, emerging corruption within GOP ranks and of a lack of an effective strategy for dealing with post-war Iraq. “We can look back and say, “You were right.”…
McCain also is engaged in a ramped-up fundraising effort before the books close Saturday on the second quarter. His first-quarter report to the Federal Election Commission — little more than $12 million and the least among the major declared candidates — was a disappointment to the campaign and triggered speculation as to whether McCain could remain competitive.
B.J. Boling, a campaign spokesman, said 85 tickets at $500 each were sold for a noon fundraiser in Columbia and another 60 had been sold for an evening event at Greenville’s Poinsett Club.”
The Tower’s analysis:
The Tower reported yesterday that the 85 tickets sold for the Columbia event probably brought in $42,500 at $500/head (minus overhead). At the Greenville event, assuming nobody came at the last minute, the 60 tickets would have banked another $30,000 for the campaign. Grand total grossed - $72,500.
Read the entire article here.
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