Gephardt faces fundraising woes

Gephardt fell far short of his fundraising goals, raising just $3.87 million for the second quarter.

Two weeks ago, Gephardt told reporters he would come in at $4.5 million, but the campaign claims some donors did not "meet their commitments", or some of that pledged money arrived after the quarter ended.

These numbers make Gephardt the big loser of the Q2 fundraising period (coming in last of all the top-tier candidates), something his campaign obviously recognizes:

Gephardt aides pledged to retool their fund-raising tactics as part of a broader reassessment of his campaign strategies. Last week, fearing his political strength would be questioned with release of the money figure, Gephardt shifted his message to increase attacks on Democratic rivals.

He should've released these numbers last week, in the midsts of the Yellowcake frenzy.

I'm still waiting on the FEC to update its site with the latest numbers. It will be interesting to see the burn rates, actual cashed raised, and cash-on-hand for each of the candidates.

Update: The other Democrat facing money problems, Lieberman, just cleaned out his fundraising team.

The top fundraiser at the presidential campaign of Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) resigned her position yesterday and her deputy made plans to quit after a weekend of turmoil inside the campaign over how to cut costs and put Lieberman into position to compete with better-funded rivals for the Democratic nomination [...]

The sudden shake-up came as Lieberman prepared to report to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) that his campaign raised $5.1 million in the second quarter and spent approximately $2.8 million, leaving him with about $4 million in cash -- or fifth place among the nine Democratic candidates.

Posted July 15, 2003 10:16 AM