Dean may be aiming for a $40 million quarter.
msnbc.com
AN OUTLANDISH CHALLENGE
It is the most outlandish challenge of this campaign season. A threshold, which if achieved, would completely alter the race for the presidency, likely result in the first dropouts of this campaign and rewrite political history. Yet, it also is a mark that the Dean campaign seriously (99.9%) doubts it can reach, calling it more of a challenge and a call to action than a realistic or achievable ambition. The challenge - raise $40 million in the third quarter. Can the Dean campaign get anywhere close, and if so, how close? He is behind the target. In an open letter (posted on the campaign’s Web site), Campaign Manager Joe Trippi notes that if all 400,000 of the Dean for America Volunteers were to send $100 dollars to the campaign, Dean for America would raise $40 million dollars this quarter. While this observation alone doesn’t mean much, the associated challenge does. In his letter, Trippi says that “now is the time” and that “these next fifteen days will be the most important days of our campaign,” raising the bar and setting this aggressive and ambitious tone for the campaign: “If you and every other person receiving this e-mail makes an average contribution of $100 by September 30th, we will have raised $40 million … I cannot overstate how critical the next fifteen days are.” For good measure, Trippi promises to put up a “bat” on the Web site during the last 10 days of the month to count down until the filing deadline, reflecting how much the campaign raises. But is this more than bluster and does the campaign have any shot at raising $30 million dollars more than the original target? The campaign says no, clearly stating that the original target of $10.3 million still stands, but may be surpassed, albeit not by $30 million. Instead, it is said, this is a letter designed to show the potential strength of a grass-roots movement and to challenge the other campaigns. Nonetheless, publicly stating one’s potential ambitions has been known to backfire in political circles and this is certainly a risky proposition. Thus, there must be some confidence that this will turn out to turn heads. A few points to keep in mind:
Past challenges have been met — the $1 million dollar effort during the “Sleepless Summer” tour, registering 450,000 volunteers (likely to be met) and significant second-quarter fundraising.
No other campaign has been this public about its fundraising abilities or targets.
The Dean crowd seems to be able to afford $100 dollars (observations suggest that most Dean supporters are middle- and upper middle-class individuals).
This undermines the efforts of other campaigns to inflate the Dean campaign’s fund-raising projections.
Even if half the $40 million is raised, it would shatter prior fund-raising records and all but destroy the hopes of a number of other candidates
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