The Washington Independent » fundraising

Joe Wilson’s Fundraising

David Weigel — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:45:08 +0000

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:

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Save Chuck Grassley From ACORN!

David Weigel — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:19:37 +0000

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:

ACORN is not that much of a political force in Iowa. If anything, this is a nod to evolving standards in fundraising boilerplate.

$8 Million for the RNC

David Weigel — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:16:07 +0000

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.

Top Coleman Donor: ‘No Regrets’

David Weigel — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:53:21 +0000

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 seat is important,” said Van Dongen. “When you think of the amount of money involved in the recount and the subsequent proceedings — whatever it was, $2 million, $3 million, $4 million — that’s the smallest amount you’ll see spent on a Senate seat anywhere in the country, in any state.”

Van Dongen would have been ready to raise funds for more Coleman challenges — “I think there would have been a broad base of support” — but he supported the decision. “It’s his decision to make. From our perspective it’s a loss to the U.S. Senate and a loss to the free enterprise cause, and I hope to see him in public life again.”

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Toomey Rakes It In

David Weigel — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:39:30 +0000

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 reason) on the day of the the Specter switch: that the campaign Website was deluged with donations.

This really is a quandary for Republicans. Toomey is a sort of Ned Lamont figure among most of the Republican base. He checks off every issue box, and he forced Arlen Specter out of the GOP. It’s going to be difficult for Republicans to kick him aside for someone they view as more electable.

RNC Fundraising: Probably Enough to Save Steele

David Weigel — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:14:44 +0000

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, which got so bad that coup rumors surfaced and Steele himself backed away from doing so much media. As it happens, it was a decent month of fundraising.

The RNC has $23.9 million on hand, which includes money infused from the expired McCain-Palin campaign.

Stand Up! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!

David Weigel — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:46:41 +0000

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, and the fund will be used to help McCain’s own 2010 reelection campaign, as well as broader GOP efforts throughout the country.

This will actually be worth watching. McCain’s name has hardly escaped Republicans’ lips since he lost the presidency. To activists, he’s the guy who gave them Sarah Palin, and that’s about it. But from 2001 to 2006 he and Rudy Giuliani were the (non-Bush/Cheney) Republicans to call in for help on the campaign trail, especially in blue states like Michigan and Massachusetts.

A couple of pertinent questions still to be answered: How much will Country First raise? (Al Franken’s PAC raised $1 million in its first year.) How often will we see McCain on the trail in blue states, for allies like former eBay CEO Meg Whitman in California?