Gotta "Follow the Money!"
THE NOTE
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The money, the money — the staggering amounts of money.
From Bush-Cheney '04 campaign reporter Karen Travers:
"The Bush-Cheney campaign reported its 3rd quarter fundraising figures yesterday — a whopping $49.5 million raised since August 1."
"The campaign has raised a total of $85.2 million to use toward the re-election effort and has about $70 million in cash on hand at the start of this month. Of the total raised, $70.2 million came from campaign events with the president, vice president, and First Lady and $12.5 million from direct mail."
"Campaign Manager Ken Mehlman told reporters on a conference call Tuesday that the campaign had no plans to start running television ads yet or how it would spend the large war chest it has amassed, but defended the drive to reach its fundraising goal of $170 million. 'I think we are likely to face a very strong barrage of soft money from special-interest groups that are already out there' and supporting the Democrats, Mehlman said. 'The president is not focused on politics. There is obviously a large number of people, volunteers who are raising resources but the president is not spending a huge amount of time on politics.'"
"The campaign has raised about $2.1 million on the Internet, but Mehlman was confident that the campaign has a strong network established on the Internet, with over six million 'e-activists' working at the grass roots level online."
"The campaign posted the updated list of Rangers, Pioneers and newly-created Mavericks on its Web site yesterday. There are about 100 Rangers who have raised at least $200,000 and 184 Pioneers who have raised at least $100,000. The Mavericks are a new group that is made up of about 20 supporters under the age of 40 who have raised $50,000."
"While these top donors' full names and states are listed, the amount they raised will not be on the Web site. 'The full disclosure we provide is above and beyond the law of what is required,' Mehlman said."
abcnews.go.com |
