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I wouldn't call $500,000 in one day a 'dud'... :)
Posted on 12/01/2007 5:14:45 AM PST by MNJohnnie
A one-day fundraising drive billed as the second “money bomb” for Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul appears to be falling well short of its target — at least partly because of a dispute among his zealous base of online supporters.
The goal of the drive — patterned after the original money bomb that turned the Texas congressman from “Ron who?” to a surprise factor in the race — was to raise $2.5 million Friday.
And Benton said the huge role of online activists in Paul’s effort means “we lose a certain element of control.”
“What we as a campaign try to do is ask people to cooperate,” he said. “There is sometimes a little conflict and perhaps s a little bickering. But when you look at the effort in its entirety, there’s a common goal and that really keeps everybody focused.”
Ironically, Lyman rushed to implement Friday’s effort because he was trying to be responsive to Paul’s campaign.
Fresh off the success of the $4.2 million haul, Lyman set in motion plans to surpass it on Dec. 16. That’s the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, an event meant to resonate with supporters of Paul’s Libertarian-tinged small government ideas.
The website set up for that push — www.TeaParty07.com — has solicited nearly $2.2 million in pledges.
But on Nov. 20, Paul’s fundraising director e-mailed supporters, warning them that money contributed then would come too late to influence the early nominating events.
“We are rapidly running out of time,” Jonathan Bydlak wrote. “Most of the expenditures that we make need to be paid for weeks in advance. For example, we need to buy crucial airtime for the end of December right now.”
The next day, Lyman posted the site for Friday’s money bomb, and set a goal of raising $2.5 million — enough to get Paul’s campaign past its $12 million fourth-quarter goal a full month before the quarter ends.
Almost immediately, Paul supporters questioned the decision.
It’s “nuts” to think today’s haul could raise even $2 million, wrote a poster with the username “colecrowe” on the popular website www.ronpaulforum.com. “And if we somehow raised that much, that would definitely be mostly Tea Party money.”
The site for Friday’s effort is meant to highlight the differences between Paul’s noninterventionist foreign policy philosophy and those of his rivals for the GOP presidential nomination.
It’s RudysReadingList.com, a reference to a heated exchange between Paul and Rudy Giuliani at a May presidential debate.
Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who’s long topped national GOP presidential polls, lit into Paul for asserting U.S. military actions in the Middle East — including years of intervention in Iraq — provoked the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington. Giuliani said he’d never “heard that before, and I’ve heard some pretty absurd explanations for Sept. 11.”
But Paul refused to back down. He subsequently referred Giuliani to assertions in the 9/11 Commission report and other books he said backed his position. Four selections from Paul’s list are listed on the site for Friday’s money bomb: rudysreadinglist.com.
Lyman acknowledged setting up a competing money bomb “was a risk."
“When I first put the idea out there, I said the market will decide which day is the better day," he explained. “But we can’t judge today until we see the 16th.” But on the eve of the second bomb, pledges totaled only $230,000 — less than 10 percent of the goal — apparently because many Paul supporters were more enthusiastic about another haul planned for Dec. 16.
The campaign was predicting Friday’s haul would total around $500,000. That’s a one-day tally most campaigns would drool over, but one that pales in comparison to projections for the money bomb, not to mention the $4.2 million raised on Nov. 5 — the date of the initial haul.
“It is what it is,” said Trevor Lyman, the 37-year-old music promoter and political novice behind all the Paul money bombs. “There will be people who will try to spin it as a negative. But the other side of the story is: No one else can match us. It’s actually very positive that we can quickly raise that kind of money.” Indeed, Paul’s campaign is in great shape financially — and not just for a dark horse. He’s raised more than $10 million since Oct. 1, almost certainly will lead the pack of Republican candidates in fourth-quarter fundraising and likely will post the largest single-quarter haul of contributions of any Republican this year.
“We’re pretty thrilled by the amount of money that’s coming in,” said Paul’s spokesman, Jesse Benton. The average Paul donor gives $100 — meaning there are a lot of small donors who are allowed to give more under federal limits, Benton said. And he added that the Nov. 5 effort — among the most successful in online fundraising history — did not meet its goal of $10 million.
As for Friday’s effort, he said: “$500,000 might not be $2 million, but it’s pretty good.”
Still, the earlier effort set a high bar, so Friday’s haul is sure to be seen in some quarters as a letdown. And it raises a handful of sobering possibilities for Paul Nation.
The Internet-based grass-roots community that coalesced around Paul’s candidacy might not have as much giving power as the first money bomb suggested, or it might be losing enthusiasm or fracturing.
If nothing else, Friday’s haul highlights the challenges of a campaign fueled by a decentralized Web-based community without direct interaction with the candidate or his surrogates. How can a supporter know what’s best for the campaign when different parts of the grass roots have conflicting ideas? And how does a campaign plan for sudden surges in fundraising or activism when it plays no role in organizing them?
Those questions occasionally puzzled former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s insurgent 2004 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
And that not considering the "independent" expenditures being made on Paul's behalf.
I wonder if some fat cat Paulbots are not going to be surprised to discover US Campaign laws do apply to them as well as the rest of us.
Maybe we should print up some Liberty Dollars to send to Paul.
This may explain why the Paul Faithful appear to be getting even nastier and moonbattier of late. ;-)
Is it me or does anyone else get annoyed with articles that quote individuals without introducing them? WHo is Benton, who is Lyman? Their quotes are just thrown in there early in the article as if we’re supposed to know who they are, then they are described (if at all) several paragraphs later.
I noticed that Paul didn’t get the big cheer he’s used to when he was introduced at the recent debate. Also I noticed that the moonbats haven’t been able to FReep the FR poll enough to put him near the top this time out either.
Republican Presidential candidate, Ron Paul, is now the frontrunner in the GOP race according to this months fund raising numbers. Paul rose over 10.3 million in the fourth quarter with a month left to go in the quarter. That number is double of what Paul raised in the third quarter.
By contrast, rival Fred Thompson raised $9,750,821 in the third quarter. Mitt Romney raised $9,896,719 in the third quarter, and Rudy Giuliani raised $10,258,019 in the third quarter.
http://www.usadaily.com/article.cfm?articleID=182537
They also haven’t spam monkey’d every thread that mentioned him in a couple days.
I was waiting for them to appear yesterday on two threads in particular that made their hero look bad.
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How many donors does that say? 120,000 with an average donation of $89 per person. Now I know I've donated $200 and several others I know have donated about the same amount. This is the first time in my entire life I have given a penny to a political campaign. Contrary to the party faithful we aren't receiving checks from George Soros. No, what upsets the party 'faithful' is we aren't choosing from the 'mainstream' candidates whose mealy mouthed responses are the same I've heard for decades now. What upsets them even more is they can't track these people because dang it they either haven't played the party game before or they had given up on most politicians long ago. They can't track them to know what they'll do when it comes to the precious voting system that has been dominated by Idiot Party 1 and Idiot Party 2
Dud? Let's see. I heard about Rudy's Reading Day about 7 days before. Most others probably around the same time, perhaps a few days extra. So in 10 days supporters of Ron Paul, without the help of the campaign, got out the message and raised over $500,000. Yeah that's a dud alright. A dud any of the 'frontrunners' would gladly accept.
Better wake up Johnnie my boy. The libertarians are back and this time your little closed party of nanny statists and interventionists are going to be put out to pasture hopefully once and for all. It may not happen this election, it may take 16 years like it did between Goldwater and Reagan. But I'm thinking not. As fast as information travels now, the clock for the big government Republicans to go away will be ticking a lot faster
Its getting ridiculous that they keep doing these at the last minute so theres no planning or organization behind them. Theyve raised 10 million this quarter, thats more than enough for now. The 16th could be a HUGE day. Especially if he gets 6 or 7 million on that day. Which I would say is VERY likely to happen. But how much of that money has already been contributed instead of waiting for it all on one day like originally planned?
I’ve given $500 now, so I guess that makes me one of the “fat cats” among Paul donors...luckily that Soros check will be coming soon to reimburse me. And WE’RE the conspiracy theorists....
As you guys know, RP donations average about 160K dollar a day with about 1500 donors.
His second so called “money boom” did over 500K in one day. I would say it was a really good day compared to his average.
The big day as you guys are writing about is the 16th of Dec. However, I heard they wanted to combine the 15/16th together in fear that some would not want to give money on a Sunday.
Regardless, I do believe the weekend of the 15th will be very successful. When it is, we will have those who hate Paul (dont understand him) blame Soros for funding him and yet these same detractors are calling this 500K a dud and claiming RP is losing his momentum and support.
How did Fred giving day do? Did the campaign raise over 500K in the one day? I know some are being VERY quiet about giving day.
Thanks for the ping TK
Thanks for introducing your friend Lefty to the Forum.
They also didn’t mention that, when Ron Paul’s person in charge of fund raising sent out the e-mail saying the campaign needed money now, Ron Paul supporters chipped in somewhere between $200-300,000 on that day. (I couldn’t find the numbers, but I think that my numbers are close.)
With such an up front primary schedule, I thought making the next money bomb Dec. 16th, after the Nov. 5th money bomb, was pretty late. I think Trevor was looking for something that could not be spun by the MSM, so he selected the date of the Boston Tea Party.
In any case, Dec. 16th will be huge. It will not get the overlay that Nov. 5th got. (About $1.8 M pledged, $4.2 M received.) I expect that about $3 M will be pledged and about $6 M. will be received.
Good showings in Iowa, top 3, and N. H., top 2, will give Ron Paul the momentum to pull off the greatest political upset in our history.
I didn't even bother with the poll.
Polls are for those who are worried about what other people think-consensus thinkers, like most of the GOP candidates.
First, Ron Paul supporters hero is the 'Constitution'.
Second, who is your candidate?
What the Ron Paul campaign has done is expose the truth that there is no difference between either Party and that either the Constitutionalists are going to take over the GOP, or it is going the way of the Whig Party.
Ah, spam monkey dead threads.
Dance for me spam monkey.
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