Posted on 08/31/2007 5:41:48 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Fred Thompson has been acting like he has all the time in the world to get his campaign going, with his aides and advisers saying they wanted to get a first-class organization humming before the “Law & Order” actor steps out for his close-up.
One adviser, seeking to calm down an excitable reporter, even pointed out that “there will be two World Series” before the 2008 election.
But in fact Thompson – who plans to travel the country with his family in a luxury bus emblazoned with the words “Security, Unity, Prosperity” -- is in a race against time that even some of his core advisers admit he has a chance of losing.
Thompson had raised only a moderate amount of money – below his advisers’ expectations – when he finally filed his first financial statement with the Internal Revenue Service at the end of July.
The excuse was that donors were staying on the sidelines till he made it official.
Now Thompson needs the cash spigot to begin gushing as soon as he appears Thursday at Des Moines’ Polk County Convention Center. He needs to swiftly validate the premise of his campaign, which is that there’s pent-up demand among Republican donors and activists for some alternative to Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani.
So Thompson’s deadline is not Election Day 2008, or even the January nominating contests.
The make-or-break date for his campaign is Sept. 30 – the Federal Election Commission cut-off for the next financial report. That document, which must be filed by Oct. 15, will determine Thompson’s fate. If he looks weak, he is unlikely to get the money, endorsements and grass-roots support that he’ll need to pull off his Houdini act, insiders say.
It amounts to a three-week, do-or-die sprint, and even Thompson does not claim to be a sprinter.
Critics in both parties had suggested that Thompson might try to game the system by not formally launching till Oct. 1 in order to avoid the third-quarter disclosure requirement.
But a Thompson official tells Politico: “The Thompson committee will file a disclosure report with the FEC on Oct. 15 covering all money raised and spent through Sept. 30.”
'We're prepared'
Thompson’s challenge is all the greater because he’s dallied for so long that he won’t get a honeymoon.
His advisers are convinced the press will unleash a blizzard of skeptical and hostile coverage to punish him for taking a nontraditional route to his candidacy.
People close to the campaign say a critical question is whether it was really necessary to begin campaigning two years before the election.
“Look, history could be written, and we got in too late,” said one close Thompson adviser. “We’re prepared for that. Or history could be written and we blew the whistle on this two-year project, and we can do it shorter and faster, and be the guys that end this madness.”
Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.), who was among the leaders in the House to push Thompson into the race, said Thompson's announcement of an announcement Thursday will provide a needed spark.
"It allows us to go ahead and firm up all these commitments from people who have said, 'If he runs I'm with him,'" Wamp said in a telephone interview from Tennessee after getting off a conference call with Thompson supporters on Thursday.
Wamp, who took a turn firing up supporters on the call, dismissed questions that Thompson's wait had harmed his prospects, but acknowledged that some Republicans had held back this summer.
"[The delay] caused certain people in grass roots and fundraising to say, 'I want a commitment,'" he said. "Well, now a commitment has taken place."
The pressure's on
Still, Thompson’s late money start, and his seeming acknowledgment in an interview with Politico.com last weekend that his summer cash haul had been disappointing, puts intense pressure on him to shake the money tree ferociously in September.
Thompson will hold a fundraiser in Chattanooga on Sept. 10, but other events are in the early states have yet to materialize. Thompson won’t raise cash in Iowa and the chairmen of the New Hampshire and South Carolina GOP said they had yet to hear any word about fundraising in their states.
Thompson is still interviewing consultants and aides and does not yet have a fundraising infrastructure in the early primary states.
“There is nobody here to do it,” said South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson. “And a good fundraiser will cost you 10 grand a month.”
Thompson’s need to ramp up his money machine is urgent, Dawson said. “When you come in with $3.5 million, you’ve opened yourself up to get pounded,” he observed, referring to the amount of money Thompson raised in June.
But Dawson emphasized that Palmetto State GOP voters were still undecided on a presidential pick.
“Hillary just scares the hell out of them down here. ‘Who can beat her’ is the question I get asked at every gas pump. Who can throw the Hail Mary and wield the veto pen.”
Thompson will underscore his independence from the rest of the field by appearing next Wednesday on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” on the same night that the other GOP candidates are appearing on a Fox News debate moderated by Chris Wallace in New Hampshire.
On a conference call for reporters yesterday, Thompson political director Randy Enwright sketched the rest of the roll-out plans, which include “a grass-roots-oriented tour that will go to Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina.
“There will be a second tour that will be the tail end of next week, the 13th through the 15th. We’ll spend several days in Florida and end up in Tennessee for a welcome home party for the senator in his hometown of Lawrenceburg, Tenn., on the 15th.”
Jim Mills, the spokesman for Friends of Fred Thompson, said the organization has “great confidence that once the American people truly get to know Fred Thompson, they will be quite impressed with his life story and his intellect and his passion, and his seriousness for solving some of the big problems.
“This is a mature adult who has a sense of humor and can be self-effacing and truly loves to mix it up with real people,” Mills said. “Fred Thompson is going to surprise some people how engaged he is on some very serious issues.”
“I called Wamp two months ago, offering to help set up Ohio. Nothing. Called again a month ago. Nothing. Now, I’m not Karl Rove or Boss Tweed, but I haven’t even heard of any other person in OH who is working on Fred’s campaign, so perhaps they might have had the courtesy to at least TALK to me???”
If Wamp had talked to you, he would have been breaking the law. Such is the nature of the rules governing testing-the-waters groups.
We ran up against this when a bunch of us from several grassroots organizations contacted Friends of Fred to ask a few questions. I got a terse e-mail response from Mark Corallo saying, in essense, “We’re not allowed to talk to you right now.”
That will change after the 6th.
Yet another rant? Hope you feel better now. :)
WestSylvanian wrote: “He’s afraid to debate with the other candidates.”
Wrong. He will be debating them on Sept. 27 and at every debate thereafter.
Go Rudy!
I thought you’d be pleased with that post. It almost sounded as though you had written it. :)
Thank you for this.
There's a lot of denial here on FR.
FReepers better wake up & soon.
Clinton is a bright & very articulate socialist. The Clinton machine is merciless & does one thing extremely well: WIN
Wow, it must have really taken some organization and preparation to make a seasoned veteran expert in all things like Barak Obama look like an inexperienced, naive idiot.
How DOES she do it?
Yes. It is interesting that other people perceive Hunter as I do—good conservative, but running a very poor, pretty much non-existent campaign. Shouldn’t you beg for some money for him about now and post his campaign donation address?
Paperdoll wrote: “No one calls FDT disrespectful names.”
I’ve seen Duncanistas on FR refer to Sen. Thompson as a “RINO” and “Nearly Dead Fred” just to cite a couple of examples. But in PaperdollWorld such things never happen.
Great comments, Pistolshot. Thompson is doing this his own way and succeeding - which is in large part why people like the Politico writers seem to hate him so much.
I suspect his announcement will be the death knell for several other contendors. When that happens, look for Thompson to scoop up the appropriate fundraisers and on-the-ground organizers that are available. I suspect the McCain campaign (along with the now-defunct Allen campaign) will largely become a part of the Thompson campaign.
Whatever happened to ideas, agenda, character and leadership?
Exactly!!!! Do you know if the stealth candidate Thompson plans to attend the GOP debate on Fox News Sept 5th?
BINGO! I’ve taken to calling him the stealth candidate! At least Romney has had the guts to step up to the plate (as well as all the others) But, so far as I can see, all we've gotten from Fred is lip service.
Proud “Mitthead” here
I always love it when a Freeper makes a post worthy of the Daily KOS
If you can’t say anything substantial just name call and insult. Your nasty post alone lead me to believe your so called political opinion has zero merit.
And frankly, that seems to be the pattern of many “FredHeads” here.
S.O.P. ??? I’m embarrassed to say I don’t know what S.O.P. stands for.
You lie again. Thompson hasn't done anything via the "back door." Everything he has done is legal--or he would have been ripped to shreds by Dems and RomneyRootie aPaullers.
Be honest: Tell us who your candidate is. You're not interested at all in Thompson.
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Ah.., a liar for Romney.
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