Unsurprisingly, the better your fundraising numbers are, the more eager you are to do a conference call with reporters…
Giuliani Campaign Manager Mike DuHaime said the campaign had raised $33 million, more than $17 million this quarter. The total cash on hand is 18 million. During the past two quarters, $1.5 million has been raised over the Internet. The campaign has 60,000 donors so far. “We feel very good about the fact that we’re the only one to increase the amount raised this quarter on the Republican side.”
He noted, “We have zero debt… It’s important that we do a good job with the money entrusted to us.”
In response to a question from Carl Cameron of Fox News about a comment about how Rudy alters the electoral calculations for the GOP, DuHaime declared that Rudy would put a slew of blue states in play, including New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Oregon and Washington. He added, “[Rudy Giuliani] has a tremendous opportunity to win New York or California.”
DuHaime didn’t seem too enamored of my question that noted that Rudy’s numbers, impressive as they were, pale in comparison to the amounts raised by Hillary and Obama. I asked if the GOP donor base was depressed, cranky, tired, or some other factor.
“The most important thing for us is to focus on the primary right now,” DuHaime said. “There are two separate elections going on right now, the Republican primary and the Democratic primary, and they are completely separate universes. We need to concentrate on what we’re doing. I’ll leave it to folks like you who have time to watch both races to analyze why Democrats are having different successes and challenges in fundraising.”
Later, after an AP reporter asked a similar question – how can Rudy be competitive in the general if the Democrats are raising so much this early – DuHaime noted that the winning GOP nominee can count on a rapid infusion of funds after securing the nomination; last year John Kerry raised about $75 million between winning the nomination and the convention. He also observed that the GOP field is more competitive, split between three, maybe four major candidates, which does not appear to be the state of the Democratic race.
In one of his last comments about Giuliani’s impact on the electoral college, DuHaime noted, “There’s nowhere that any Democrat can compete with Giuliani in any red states, at least that I can see.” Oooh, Edwards, he just called you out!