fundraising

He’s been advertising on the email lists of The Washington Times and Townhall.com, among other places, and claims to have raked in $200,000 so far. Here’s the pitch from one of the emails:

Ezra Klein nabs a fundraising letter from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) in which the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee pledges to fight “the legislation sponsored by Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the House of Representatives and Chairman Ted Kennedy in the Senate.” One part that jumped out at me:

The Republican National Committee emails reporters to announce a hefty fundraising haul for June that leaves it with $23.7 million in the bank, a solid amount of money if the party needs to bail out its gubernatorial candidates in Virginia and New Jersey.

I just talked to Dirk Van Dongen, the president of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, and a key fundraiser for former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) in the extended legal battle that conclusion today. Van Dongen praised Coleman’s “guts” for seeing through the state legal process and said he had “no regrets” about his fundraising.
“Every Senate [...]

The campaign of Pennsylvania GOP Senate candidate Pat Toomey just announced that it “raised over half a million dollars from over four thousand contributors” since the candidate entered the race on April 15. A hard number would be more interesting, but the campaign is backing up what a campaign worker told me (anonymously, for some [...]

The Republican National Committee reports (in an e-mail blast) that it raised $17.6 million in the first quarter of the year: $5.8 million in January, $5.1 million in February, and $6.7 million in March. The last figure is important because it covers the period of new Chairman Michael Steele’s parade of real talk and gaffes, [...]

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is launching a new political action committee, Country First, replacing the storied Straight Talk America PAC that was folded into his presidential campaign.
Michael O’Brien has the scoop:
The new PAC, headquartered in Alexandria, Va., lists Keith Davis, a New Jersey-based local Republican official.
McCain will publicly announce the PAC’s formation today, CNN reported, [...]