In an attempt to bolster both his name recognition and the credibility of his campaign, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney had scheduled a whopping 20 fundraising events for the month of March. Romney’s fundraising got off to a good start when he held a creative event called National Call Day. On January 9, he brought all of his top supporters to Boston, and put them to work seeking donations within their personal and professional networks. The event raised $6.5 million. The first month of his campaign also raised $1.4 million on line.
We will find out how successful Romney was when the campaigns first fundraising disclosure form is released to the public on April 15. Most of the campaigns in the 2008 race have fundraising targets between $15-20 million by the time the deadline for filing disclosure forms with the FEC rolls around on March 31. Political analysts estimate that candidates will need to raise $100 million each to be competitive in the 2008 primaries and caucuses. For Mitt Romney, out fundraising John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, or both of them, would put him on the news radar, and help him be viewed as a credible candidate who can compete with the frontrunners.
The strategy that Romney is employing has worked in the past. In the 2004 campaign season, Howard Dean was a nobody candidate until he started raising millions of dollars from Internet donors. John Edwards was an unknown too, until the financial disclosure form for the first quarter of 2003 was released. It revealed that Edwards had only raised $100,000 less than eventual nominee, John Kerry. Edwards’s fundraising ability landed him media attention that he might have never gotten otherwise. That attention led to more fundraising, and strong showings at the polls, which resulted in Kerry selecting Edwards as his running mate.
Every poll that is released shows Romney trailing McCain and Giuliani by double digit margins. In some polls, Romney even trails Newt Gingrich, who hasn’t announced his candidacy, and may not even run. Through fundraising Romney can show that he does have support, and that he belongs with the leaders. “Clearly the inside-the-Beltway folks, the opinion leaders, are looking at that as a leading indicator of popular support and an ability to mount a national campaign,” Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said. Romney is a gifted fundraiser, but once he has the attention of the media and voters, we he be able to take advantage of it? I think that no matter how much money Romney raises he has a tough road ahead of him. The candidates ahead of him are well known national figures. I believe that both McCain and Giuliani would have to stumble badly for him to have a shot at the Republican nomination.
Jason Easley is the editor of the politics zone at 411mania.com. His news column The Political Universe appears on Tuesdays and Fridays at www.411mania.com/politics
Jason can also be heard every Sunday afternoon at 1:30 pm (ET) as the host of The Political Universe Radio Show at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thepoliticaluniverse
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5 users commented in " Romney raising lots of cash "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackNice hack of the Fox News article….
Romney definitely has my full support! I was once siding with McCain several months ago, and had completely ruled out Giuliani (Giuliani is more a Liberal than a Conservative!). However, after a lot of research - Mitt Romney is the BEST candidate for 2008!
“Every poll that is released shows Romney trailing McCain and Giuliani by double digit margins.” I guess polls that do not support this statement don’t count. What about the New Hampshire poll that shows McCain at 29%, Giuliani at 28%, Romney at 22%, and Gingrich at 5%? The straw poll conducted at the Conservative Political Action Conference had Romney leading with 21%, Giuliani at 17% and McCain at 12%. Then there is the LA Times poll of RNC members which showed Romney leading with 20% then Giuliani at 14%, McCain with 10% and Gingrich at 8%.
Your analogy is not complete, nor correct.
Mitt Romney MAY have some trouble convincing some people about his chosen religion. Since he is not well known yet, he has plenty of time to get nationally known. The time now is NOT necessarily for national exposure (although positive exposure is always a plus), but to convert and convince the conservative donor base and grass roots activists to help him in his presidential bid. Once he has gained a reputation as a “Ronald Reagan-style” conservative that has a powerful vision and a distinct, hopeful direction for America with workable solutions for America’s most pressing problems, and hase has raised a substantial amount of money, he will naturally get attention-and that is when he will be in the national spot-light getting plenty of national exposure.
McCain will NEVER be the GOP candidate because he has angered too many of the conservative bases of support to get any help from them. Rudy Giuliani is NOT a conservative, and when it is PAINFULLY pointed out that Mitt Romney has a workable strategy to confront Islamofascism and America’s enemies WITHOUT the baggage that Rudy has on social issues of great importance to conservatives, it will be relatively easy for Mitt Romney to ascend past both front-runners as primary CONSERVATIVE activists come out to vote for a true conservative candidate-Mitt Romney.
I have a good blog entry for further information on the reasoning behind my brief comments here. http://777denny.wordpress.com/
Here is another poll showing Romney’s rise in popularity as people learn more about the candidates position on issues and pure name recognition becomes less important. A poll in Michigan conducted on March 12th had McCain at 30%, Giuliani at 26% and Romney at 21%.
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