Happy 20th!
For political geeks who LOVE looking at numbers, today should provide some insight into what the money race going forward will look like, as Presidential FEC reports are due on the 20th of every month.
As you no doubt have already heard, Barack Obama told the American people that he wasn't going to take $84MM of their hard earned tax dollars [ ;-) ] and instead opt for raising his general election funds via individual contributions. So it will become increasingly important to see what kind of money he can raise, so that we will find out how far he can go with his 50-state strategy (and maybe TN will get some love).
Obama's best month so far was in February when he raised $55+ million dollars, shattering all previous fundraising records. During much of the month of May, it was fairly clear that Barack Obama was going to be the nominee (Tim Russert said it was so), and therefore it will be interesting to see what new donors he was able to bring into the mix, and if he was able to beat his previous best. There is a chance that the worsening economy and higher gas prices has impacted his small dollar donor base.
On the other hand, his joint fundraising deal with the DNC had not yet gone into effect until June, so in all likelihood the RNC will have still outraised the Party of the People. It will be interesting to see come next month whether or not having a nominee unleashed the floodgates of über-wealthy donors or not.
On the dark side, Sen. McCain had been continuously improving his fundraising figures every month after securing the nomination. Having nearly completely capitulated to the Right-wing of the part, will his numbers improve? Or will he still be operating at a deficit?
All things to think about as the numbers come forth later on today.
Update:
One thought on Obama's decision to buck the public financing system. Many people, including the Associated Press, are mocking this decision by saying "so much for a new politics". You can certainly criticize the decision on public interest grounds or consistency grounds....but you can't really say it isn't "new politics" because nobody has declined public financing since its inception in 1976. So, in that regards, Obama is a bit of a trailblazer if you will...whether or not that is a good thing in this situation is up to you to decide.
5 comments:
You turn me right round like a record baby, right round right round...i.e the spin continues
Great insight.
It was a stupid thing to agree to in the first place, so I'm certainly not mad at him for changing his mind.
I think we've seen what happens when leaders refuse to acknowledge and reverse stupid decisions.
Though everyone will say I am being Clintonesque here . . . look at what he actually "promised" to do: sit and talk with the other campaign.
He signed a friggin pledge to sit down and talk with the other camp about it. Everyone is acting like he made some binding promise. He didn't.
Now McCain is actually currently in violation of campaign law. He took a loan "creatively" backed by public primary funds then unilaterally tried to back out even though technically teh FEC has to allow him out. This is punishable by prison thanks in part to his own law.
Spin that.
Liberals lie and their supporters believe them or don't care. I did not have sex with that woman!
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