Posted on 07/31/2007 10:20:21 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
There always is a learning curve when even an experienced politician runs for president. So Fred Thompson — the former Tennessee senator, actor and much-hyped prospective candidate for the Republican White House nomination — can take this lesson from the first money report for his still-unofficial campaign: Don’t publicly announce fundraising goals unless you know you are going to meet them.
The $3.46 million raised in the month of June by “Friends of Fred Thompson” sounds like a solid number. But that figure fell short of the $5 million expectation set by the Thompson camp itself.
Somewhat surprisingly, then, the questions about Thompson’s fundraising may soon turn to whether that nearly $3.5 million is actually too much — at least for an unannounced hopeful who has not yet filed candidacy papers with the Federal Election Commission and is raising money using an “exploratory” committee set up under Tennessee rather than federal law.
While the overall receipts were less than the campaign hoped, a seven-figure number is still a serious take, raising this issue: At what point are candidates required to file with the FEC and start meeting the fundraising and reporting requirements established under federal campaign finance laws?
The lesson emanating from this question, though, may be more about the impenetrable complexity of campaign finance laws than about any serious hindrance to Thompson’s likely full-fledged bid for the GOP nomination.
Thompson — better known nationally for starring as a district attorney on NBC’s “Law and Order” series than for his roughly eight-year Senate tenure (1994-2003) — filed papers in Nashville on June 1 to create a “testing the waters” committee. “In early 2007, Thompson embarked on what he calls a ‘dialogue’ with the American people, through his various venues, to determine whether there was a desire among American voters for him to enter Republican presidential race. . . . One can’t help but see that Thompson again might be hearing the call to serve,” reads the biography page of the Friends of Fred Thompson Web site.
Friends of Fred Thompson also is registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a “527” political organization, so named because it is regulated under Section 527 of the tax code.
But Thompson, initially expected to officially launch his candidacy around the Fourth of July, has delayed his entry, with around Labor Day appearing to be the latest target.
These fits and starts might raise the enigma of when an exploratory committee morphs into an actual campaign — which, under law, starts a 15-day countdown for a candidate to inform the FEC of his or her plans.
Five factors determine whether an individual has crossed over from “testing the waters” to becoming a candidate for federal office, according to Paul Ryan, FEC program director for the Campaign Legal Center. Thompson appears clear on three of them: using political advertising to publish the intention to run for federal office; making or authorizing statements referring to one as a candidate; or taking action to qualify on a ballot under state law.
But on two issues — whether Thompson has raised more money than could be expected to be used for exploratory activities, and whether his months of “testing the waters” have been a “protracted period of time” as outlined by federal law as qualifying someone as a candidate — Thompson could have trouble. While Friends of Fred Thompson raised $3.45 million in June, it spent only $626,000 that month in the process of testing the waters.
“Reasonable minds could disagree” over both those issues, Ryan said.
“Federal law doesn’t say when you have to tell the public you’re a candidate. It does say when you have to tell the FEC you’re a candidate” based on the five factors, he said.
The fact that there have been numerous media reports, citing sources close to Thompson, that he is definitely a candidate could potentially put him in a bind. “To the extent several weeks ago that Mr. Thompson decided he is going to run, I think a fair reading of federal campaign finance law is that that started the 15-day clock for him to register a principal campaign committee,” Ryan said.
Luckily for Thompson, enforcement is a tricky thing. “The other side of that coin, though, is that it would be incredibly difficult to prove as a matter of law that he had decided to run then had 15 days but failed to register the committee when in fact he could come back and say, ‘No, what I decided then was not to run, and then I changed my mind,’” Ryan said.
And even if a complaint were to be filed with the FEC about Thompson’s campaign structure, investigations remain under wraps until they are resolved, a process that can take months or years.
As far as the details provided in Thompson’s campaign finance report, his strongest support came from fellow Southerners. Seventy-nine percent of the funds he raised in June came from the 14 Southern states — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia — with $1.7 million coming from his home state of Tennessee.
After Tennessee, the largest sums came from Texas ($337,000), New York ($195,000), California ($166,000), Florida ($149,000) and Georgia ($122,000).
Friends of Fred Thompson pointed out the money was raised without direct mail or telephone solicitations. The average donation was $370, and $772,000 of the money was raised online.
I agree with ya...would be an interesting race, get out the popcorn!!
Thompson is keeping on message and ignoring the transparently trivial and Petty attacks the Democrat are feeding to their willing accomplices in the media. Every so often Fred squishes a bug like Mikey Moore, when it suits his own strategic purposes. I’m sure he will squash a few more liberal bugs during this campaign. And then when he is President the DDT will come out. ;)
You are correct—she should not be running his campaign, but he ought to stay married.
Agreed that the others began very, very, very, very early.
Still, I’m impatient.
“The $3.46 million raised in the month of June by “Friends of Fred Thompson” sounds like a solid number. But that figure fell short of the $5 million expectation set by the Thompson camp itself.”
Really don’t think the Thompson camp thinks the $3.46 million fell short of their expectations since it was raised in only a 26 day period! Not bad for a person not even in the race!!
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