The Shot!

[Tim Cameron]

The Politico is reporting that Fred Thompson’s “Testing the Waters” Committee will report they raised only $3 million during the month of June. This figure is substantially less than most major backers had hoped.

According to the Politico:

Thompson plans to make the disclosure in a filing with the Internal Revenue Service, as he continues to operate his prospective campaign as a political organization that does not require disclosure to the Federal Election Commission…

…But many Republicans have turned queasy as Thompson has ousted part of his original brain trust and repeatedly delayed his official announcement, which is now planned for shortly after Labor Day, in the first two weeks of September.

Some are already saying a prospective Thompson run is a flop. “I just don’t see it anymore,” said a key Republican who had been extremely enthusiastic about a Thompson candidacy.

This number is troubling. At this rate Thompson would only be able to raise $9 million per quarter. This figure would be about $3 million dollars less than Sen. John McCain’s dismal 2nd quarter figure.

The Thompson campaign does point out that the period covered in this upcoming report was not the entire month of June, but rather only the 26 days from June 4th, when he formed his “Testing the Waters” committee and the end of the month. Still I doubt any substantial amount of money would have been raised if the campaign did have those additional four days.

Fred Thompson has been blogging a lot lately, but I think it is high time for him to put the keyboard away and bring out the rolodex. As we have learned watching McCain’s downward spiral, money sets the tone for your campaign. Thompson and McCain are both going through similar difficulties right now. Both have lost key staffers, and both had under $3 million in the bank at the end of June. Fortunately for Thompson there is still a level of hype around candidacy that McCain clearly lacks, but hype only last so long. If Thompson does not get his campaign into full gear by the end of the 3rd quarter (September 30th), that hype will fade. And if he doesn’t raise over $60 million before the South Carolina primary, I don’t know if he can even realistically contend for the Republican nomination.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 5:58 pm and is filed under The Chaser, Top Shelf News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.