Vice President Dick Cheney got up yesterday morning, boarded Air Force Two and flew to Columbia, S.C., where he rode in a motorcade to a private home, shook hands, and posed for pictures with 150 donors at a luncheon. There he raised $300,000 for the Bush-Cheney reelection committee before flying home.
Over four days ending last night, Howard Dean outdid the vice president -- without leaving his campaign headquarters in Burlington, Vt.
In a testament to the power of Internet fund-raising, and the intensity of the Democratic presidential contender's support, Dean raised $344,000 for his campaign by the time of the Cheney lunch. All Dean's staff did was tell their supporters about Cheney's event via the Internet and challenge them to surpass the vice president's total.
By 12:30 this morning, Dean's total stood at $507,150, with contributions from 9,500 people, the campaign said, adding that the counting was expected to continue overnight. The drive, which started late last Thursday, ended at midnight last night. For the Republican-held White House, it was more direct evidence of a fund-raising phenomenon that Dean's eight Democratic rivals witnessed last month, when the former Vermont governor posted the highest total of the group for the second quarter of the year, $7.6 million. In one day in late June, the campaign raised more than $800,000, much of it via the Internet. The latest cybertake had professionals shaking their heads.
''That amount of money raised in that amount of time for an event that wasn't even their own event strikes me as spectacular,'' said Richard Armstrong, a direct-mail specialist in Washington who wrote a book about politics in the electronic era titled, ''The Next Hurrah.''
''Although there have been candidates with websites going back 10 years, this is clearly the most effective we've seen ever.''
Joe Trippi, Dean's campaign manager, said the effort proved Dean is no fluke, either as a candidate or as a fund-raiser.
''I keep reading people saying things like, `I don't know if he can sustain this,' or, `Do they have a product,' but we don't know where those blind quotes are coming from,'' Trippi said.
The campaign manager said the message extends to the core of Dean's populist message.
Cheney ''does it with people who get plaques for raising $100,000. (Dean's supporters) are regular people -- students, retirees -- who give $50,'' Trippi said. ''If George Bush is running against that, it's not a left-wing thing or a right-wing thing, but people participating in their democracy. People don't want to believe that about us, but we'll just keep talking about it -- and proving it -- until they do.''
Cheney also has prowess as a fund-raiser. So far this year he has raised $4.7 million for his and President Bush's reelection. The incumbents had more than $32 million in the bank as of June 30, according to their campaign.
Dean's campaign also used a few tactics to meet the self-imposed challenge, including counting money that otherwise would have been received over the Internet, about $20,000 daily. In addition, it updated its supporters each half-hour, building support as Cheney's noontime event drew near.
By 11 p.m. Sunday, the total had reached $250,000, the initial estimate of what Cheney had been expected to raise, based on newspaper reports about his visit.
By noon, when Cheney's lunch started, Dean's total stood at $344,428. The number of donors totaled 6,558 -- about 6,400 more than Cheney's.
Each of the vice president's donors gave $2,000, the maximum allowed for an individual during the primaries, but the average donation for Dean by that hour -- $52 -- meant his campaign could go back and seek additional money from most of the contributors as his primary campaign continues.
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