Guarded Optimism - The Record is Still $6.5M
Published by BG on Wednesday, June 06, 2007 at 3:52 PM.Hugh Hewitt
Sources close to the (Fred) Thompson campaign have passed along the following first-day results for ImWithFred.com:
- Averaged close to 1,500 people per hour signing up as friends
- Averaged $12,000 per hour in contributions
- Raised more than $220,000 dollars via the website
Sounds pretty good, eh? How about a little perspective:
Romney Raises $6.5 Million In One-Day Blitz - 1/9/07
(From the Washington Post): "Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney raised $6.5 million for his presidential exploratory committee yesterday, sending a powerful message to his potential opponents about the seriousness of his bid for the Republican nomination.
"Romney gathered about 400 of his largest financial backers for an all-day call-a-thon at the Boston convention center.
Yes, yes... apples and oranges, I get that. Still, goes to show you what can be accomplished in one day if you've got the right approach, no? This comparison is probably a little more fair:
Obama's Campaign Takes In $25 Million - washingtonpost.com - 4/5/07
"I'm proud to tell you that, after the first quarter of the campaign, we've exceeded all of our hopes and expectations," Obama said in an e-mail to supporters yesterday, adding that the total is a "measure of just how hungry people are to turn the page on this era of small and destructive politics and repair our American community."
Obama surpassed Clinton in several areas that could be critical to their competition: He reported donations from 100,000 individuals, double the 50,000 people who gave to the former first lady. More than half of those donors, largely giving in small increments, sent money over the Internet. He raised $6.9 million online, compared with Clinton's $4.2 million.
That's almost $77,000 a day for Obama over the course of the quarter, and about $47,000 a day for Clinton - and that's just the average. You'd have to assume there were better days than others along the way, and I'd bet there were a couple days for each where $220k was in the rearview mirror by dinnertime. Still, $220k is a nice little start, especially for a candidate who will presumably get less money from us unwashed hippies on the Internet than from the deep pocket donors his party is used to.
Since Democrats generally set the bar for online fundraising, it bears watching to see if the energy of a "first day" for Thompson can continue to show good results for his Internet efforts. There's no reason to discount this number as a start, so long as the train keeps rolling steadily ahead.
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