GOP Ron Paul – Five Million Dollar Man?
The number of people giving Ron Paul money is staggering.How is Paul raising this much money? Most campaigns raise the majority of money from a small percentage of big money donors. How do you think Ron Paul will do in New Hampshire? Do you think he could break into the top tier candidates via votes? Will the GOP embrace Ron Paul if he does well?
FMN-Congressman Ron Paul’s donations have moved up – not by hundreds of thousands – but by millions as a result of his debate performances and groundswell of support on the Internet and in New Hampshire, observers close to the campaign say.
The move is especially impressive since as of March 31, 2007, he had perhaps $500,000 on hand (see candidate estimates below).
FMNN had previously reported – after the GOP presidential debate in South Carolina – that candidate Ron Paul’s (R-Tex) donations, large and small, had nearly doubled.
At this rate, say observers, Ron Paul could have something like $10 million in his coffers inside of several months, and the total could keep growing – so long as he continues to hit on themes that Americans support – how to return the country to a true, small government, constitutional republic and how to end the war in Iraq.
Sam Brownback
cash-on-hand: $806,626Jim Gilmore
cash-on-hand: $90,107Rudy Giuliani
cash-on-hand: $11,949,735Mike Huckabee
cash-on-hand: $373,918Duncan Hunter
cash-on-hand: $272,552John McCain
cash-on-hand: $5,180,799Ron Paul
cash-on-hand: $524,919Mitt Romney
cash-on-hand: $11,863,653Tom Tancredo
cash-on-hand: $575,078Tommy Thompson
cash-on-hand: $139,723
Wow! This is most encouraging. Given the groundswell of grassroots support for Ron Paul ((“YouTubin’ Ron: Lapping the Field”), I predicted that he’d get a substantial bump in his fundraising – but nothing like this report is suggesting.
It looks like the bookies knew what they were talking about, after all.
–Eric
Erick
I do think he is around 4rth place! I think that the GOP will be in a real quandary.
BTW I think that is about the 20 to 25 % of typical GOP voters are against the current Iraq war strategy. He may not get all of it due to many being run off to Democrats or a third party!
The part that is interesting Hillary being all over the board on the war and a front runner helps Paul!
FYI
READ FULL STORY VIA ERIC’S LINK ON ERIC’S COMMENT!
YouTubin’ Ron: Lapping the Field
Posted by Eric F. Langborgh
Dr. Ron Paul, Republican candidate for President, is already the king of the internet.
A week ago today, I wrote here how the GOP’s establishment’s efforts to freeze Dr. Paul out of future presidential debates has backfired badly. At that time, his website was already attracting more visitors than any other candidate, and was the top search of any sort at Technorati, the great tabulator of the blogs. Concerning the latter, there are now, at this minute, 61,674 blog posts about Ron Paul recorded by Technorati. Many are critical, of course, but an increasing percentage are highly favorable. And all are boosting the name recognition of this “second-tier” candidate.
[...] The news comes from the Free-Market News Network: Ron Paul may have as much $5,000,000 on hand. (HT: John Knopp) Here are some highlights from the article: Congressman Ron Paul’s donations have moved up – not by hundreds of thousands – but by millions as a result of his debate performances and groundswell of support on the Internet and in New Hampshire, observers close to the campaign say. [...]
My theory: Ron Paul is being bolstered by Democrat strategists to split the Republican vote.
Hoads
Could it be all the independents that have left both parties that are doing it.
I agree, what you suggest is a possibility but, I have a question.
Ron Paul may be more popular among liberals than Hillary/Obama/Edwards in general. So, if there are Democrat strategists doing this, it may backfire.
When Ron Paul goes on the liberal shows, he gets, I think, a better review than the Democrat front runners on the Constitutional issues of limited taxes and spending, etc.
Doesn’t mean he will win the GOP nomination but if he did, he just might surprise many in how many independent votes he would get which is as large as the membership of the Democratic party now and he would get a lot of Democrat votes if Hillary is the candidate and a lot of stay at home GOP voters would come out, though maybe some new ones would stay home that don’t like him.
No matter what, this is turning out to be a very interesting primary.
Rudy and McCain are pulling out of the Iowa Aug. 11 primary leaving that to Mitt (and Fred?). (Townhall article on that this morning).
Link for Townhall article
LMAO!! YouTube is now the determining factor for standing in a political race??? Keep dreaming folks, Paul has about as much chance as John Konop did against Tom Price!
BB,
Re: reading: is the problem comprehension or is that you just don’t?
Bart is the VC for the GOP in GEORGIA. Bart is part of the PARTY before COUNTRY crowd!
John,
Is Bart VC for the entire state or just Cherokee county.
Just Cherokee but I think this is his second term.
Among the younger people, more and more are turning to the internet and “video” for virtually all their news. The blogs, you tube, email alerts from all their subscriptions fill their email inbox. They have it on their phones and “Blackberry’s” and view them as they sit in Starbucks and other wireless hubs.
I don’t know how old you are Bart but if you are like me, I am amazed every day at how much the under 50 crowd depend on the internet for almost every move they make.
They don’t like either party in many cases and have no loyalty to a party, only a “cause” and for over 1/2 the voters, right or wrong, that cause is “get out of Iraq.”
Doesn’t mean Ron Paul will win the Primary but, it does show through his contributions how small the GOP is becoming as an impact on politics among the younger voters.
Jan Paul,
Until the disclosure report is filed, this is all pure conjecture. Campaign staff lie (see Konop’s campaign where he claimed polls showing him at 40% LMAO). We will know for sure in about a month when the next statement is submitted.
But I do agree about the internet. It has slowly become a real factor in national elections, but still not a reliable, long term source for contributions to carry a major campaign. And so far, the big internet campaigns have yet to win, i.e. Howard Dean, John McCain, etc.
There you go again John. I know the truth is tough to swallow, but you know as well as I that the GOP will not select a candidate who is scared to take on our enemies. He can own the internet, own YouTube, get a few Meetup groups, hang around debates, but he can’t win.
That has nothing to do with party or country…it is just reality.
Vice Chairman of Communications for the Cherokee GOP 05-07, 1st VC of Cherokee GOP 07-present. My postings on blogs have nothing to do with my volunteer time spent helping the local GOP in its efforts to elect Republicans in Cherokee County.
Bart
I did get 28% of the vote in Cherokee County with Tom Price spending over 2 million dollars to my 100k.
Also the guys like you in the party did everything you could not to give equal time.
The poll was based on crossover votes from Democrats that did not happen.
BTW I was working at the same time and did not even go door to door.
Most insiders told me with
the amount of money I spent, never being politics before they could not believe how well I did.
At the end Bart my popularity has only grown because as I predicted guys like you and Tom Price would keep selling out Americans!
As far as Ron Paul winning in the primary it will be hard. But it is a strange time with so many candidates. Also it will be hard for the GOP just to ignore him.
How they deal with Ron Paul is critical. Not that I expect them to nominate him if the few Republicans that remain don’t want him, but, if they treat him the wrong way, many that would vote Republican for Romney or Thompson, will just stay home.
He has appealed to a lot of independents and even Republicans who disagree on the war. Those who believe that we are there and have to consider the problems leaving will cause, don’t want to vote for Ron Paul but, they also believe we shouldn’t be there.
The support for Afghanistan was virtually 100% and is still higher than for Iraq because that is where the 9-11 terrorists were led from. Yet, if Ron Paul is treated like he is wrong about the decades of foreign policy that led to this point, they will be turned off and stay home.
You can’t win the general election with 25% of the vote and 11% that used to lean to the Republican Party. That may be even less now.
If the Republicans that support Ron Paul, as few as they might be, are treated badly, they could lose a lot of the House seats in 2008 by just staying home.
If Ron Paul is disagreed with and it is done respectfully by the party, they will still probably vote in 2008. Do it wrong and they will look for a 3rd party even if Ron isn’t doesn’t run in one.
I post on many blogs and many Republicans are already planning on trying to get 3rd party candidates to run against Republicans in their districts. It is critical for the GOP to win the House back if they intend to support a GOP President.
They can elect anybody they want to President and he won’t accomplish a thing if the House and Senate loses more GOP seats in 2008. They face a good chance of losing enough seats that they won’t even have enough to filibuster successfully.
I think many are mad because Ron Paul has pointed out the divide in the party and why they are losing membership. The voters have a different view of Republican principles than the current elected Republicans do. Many disagree with Ron Paul on a few issues but agree with him on enough that they are turned off by the current elected Republicans.
That can spell disaster in 2008 and they hate Ron Paul for giving public voice to what many Republicans are saying in private. The GOP has to quit driving their members away to the ranks of independent.
Now with more and more corporations also donating more to the Democrats than the GOP, it hurts on both the private donor level and the corporate level. Again, they aren’t doing enough to convince voters what they are doing is right.
How can they when the tell lie after lie on immigration. It is not a “compromise.” It is a sellout. It being done for reasons they may think are very good but, they aren’t saying what those reasons are.
Jobs Americans won’t do is a lie and they know it is and yet they keep saying it. At least they could be honest enough to say they are jobs Americans won’t do for the “fair wage” they think those jobs deserve. Then at least they would just be disagreeing over what “fair wage” is. But, to say Americans won’t do the jobs is hurting their credibility.
Bart, if you want the GOP to survive in 2008 and not lose more House and Senate seats, you need to convince them to hire some really good marketing people who can convince voters they are better than democrats and that they will stick to the Republican Party Principles of limited government, less spending, less intrusion in social programs, less foreign intervention (even if they stay in Iraq) and that the current foreign policy is best and why it is best because American voters in the majority don’t believe them and don’t trust them anymore.
Again, you can be right but if nobody believes you are right, you still lose the election.
Jan
Great Post!
hoads
Democrats are staying away from Ron Paul.
Eric, re your post #9
Perfect comment!
John
re: “Democrats are staying away from Ron Paul.” Is this one of those conundrums? Like tomorrow never gets here? Because if Democrats support Ron Paul they would cease to be Democrats more or less, eh?
[...] GOP Ron Paul – Five Million Dollar Man? [...]
I’ve sent a little on a couple of occasions so it would not surprise me to learn that his $5M came from 100,000 people.
KEEP CONTRIBUTING FOR LIBERTY.
Semper Fi
Phil
I guess pretty soon he’ll be the 6 MILLION DOLLAR MAN!!!
“Better, stronger, faster” conservatism!!!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=woOLEEu8RLI