Romney's Campaign: Don't Believe McCain's Hype
By hotlineblog
When John McCain told reporters yesterday that his campaign's fundraising efforts had been hurt by a late start, was he artfully trying to lower expectations?
A Mitt Romney fundraiser with access to the campaign's daily fundraising tallies tells the Hotline that Romney won't raise more than $20 million -- much lower than the $30 to $35 million figure being floated about Washington by some of Romney's allies.
The fundraiser, who asked to remain anonymous in order to revisit McCain's claims, said that McCain's campaign was engaged in an elaborate game of deception in order to set Romney up. The thinking is that by artificially pumping up the amount of money Romney is expected to raise, the press will dutifully note that Romney "failed" to meet that non-realistic, externally-imposed goal. That'd be a bit of a psychic blow to the campaign.
A Romney campaign aide said last night that "McCain will be in first."
Money comes from three sources: the rolodexes of major "raisers," like Bush pioneers and rich folks; direct mail and e-mail lists; and in-person fundraisers, where major donors and fundraisers are rewarded for their work.
Who's right? Does it matter? Should anyone care?
First, keep in mind that neither side knows how much the other side has actually raised. The daily cash on hand totals are not widely distributed in either campaign. If Romney raises only $18 million, then McCain will eclipse him. If he raises in excess of $25M, McCain might now.
The only number we're getting from the McCain campaign -- unofficially, of course -- is that McCain's haul won't exceed $30M.
Maybe we can answer the questions by asking a different one: who has the most to benefit from exceeding expectations? Romney's had a rough several months, and a higher-than-expected total would let undecided Republicans and donors know that he's still alive. McCain is no longer the numerical frontrunner and has endured weeks of news stories attaching the adjective "floundering" to "campaign." If McCain tops the field by $5 million, it's a show of strength. But the media really won't buy the notion that his fundraising network, which took John Weaver and co. several years to put together, would stumble out of the gate. [MARC AMBINDER] |
