Opinion: Breaking News: Ron Paul scoops in $5 million!
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The fervent supporters of Ron Paul, who seem to swim the internet 24 hours a day, are always complaining about their candidate being ignored. Sometimes they even do it politely.
They’ll get back to that tomorrow. But for today they’ll have to shut up and revel in a singular achievement--and its growing notice in the media. They contributed more than $5 million to the Texas representative’s insurgent campaign in the third quarter. $5,080,000 to be exact. A 114% increase over the second quarter, while some other prominent candidates had lower numbers.
‘As these fundraising numbers show,’ said Kent Snyder, Paul campaign chairman, ‘more Americans each day are embracing Dr. Paul’s message.’
For weeks Paul supporters, who huddle on their own chatsites to organize Comment-writing campaigns on widespread websites, have been claiming that the 72-year-old ob-gyn was gaining strength. But all they could point to as evidence were minor straw polls. Now, they’ve got a not-insignificant pile of money, which serves as votes in the public mind until the actual balloting begins come January.
True, $5 million pales in comparison to the $27 million Hillary Clinton raised this past quarter or the $100 million she and Barack Obama are each expected to raise this year. But Paul’s haul isn’t far behind the far-more-established John Edwards’ $7 million for the third quarter.
And get this: Ron Paul’s $5 million is about five times what former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee raised last quarter, despite all his enhanced publicity springing from a second-place finish in the Ames straw poll.
Despite his good reviews--last weekend former president Bill Clinton, also from Hope, Ark. even called Huckabee the best GOP speaker--Huckabee’s long-shot campaign like Edwards’ may face increasing money difficulty these next three months as the elections near and financial supporters start inching--or flooding--toward the favorites’ camps to protect themselves and their interests. For now, the Newsweek poll has the Arkansan statistically tied with Giuliani for third in Iowa.
Huckabee’s name, however, continues to be mentioned as a nice Southern/Heartland conservative flavor to add as a vice presidential partner if the top of the GOP ticket is from the Northeast.
Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani’s campaign are playing press release chicken with each other today, each holding back their third-quarter numbers for the best timing for them. They’re the consistent poll and fundraising leaders with Paul in the low single digits. His supporters claim the polls are biased and under-report Paul people.
But for this afternoon the attention is focused on Paul. Oh, and by the way, his low-budget campaign reported having $5.3 million cash on hand, which may even enable it to buy a TV ad in Iowa and New Hampshire. If they purchase 9,999 more, they’ll equal just Romney’s TV buys so far.
--Andrew Malcolm