McCain’s Financial Problems
The only truly well funded Republican candidate is Governor Mitt Romney. All the other candidates have to scramble for $. John McCain is one of them: he has seven - 7 - fundraisers scheduled in the weak leading up to Florida’s primary. If he wants to compete with Romney, who is able to spend tens of millions of dollars on his own campaign, he has to raise much. Very much.
Although fundraising is nice and all, McCain’s economic woes mean that he can spend less on actual, you know, campaigning. That at a time when the race in Florida promises to be very close and one vote can make the difference (between winning and losing). Not only that, Rudy Giuliani has also promised to go after McCain which could do him considerable damage.
O, and Romney is leading in the polls.
Ken Goldstein, director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project, estimated a week of thorough advertising in California might cost between $4.5 million and $5 million.
Raising that much might be a problem for McCain. On the other hand, Goldstein explains: “Can we match Romney because Romney can raise a lot of money by writing himself a check? No. But we don’t need to match Romney.”
Says who buddy? Romney is, you know, leading in the latest Rasmussen poll. You need to make a comeback. In order to do so you need money. The press can give McCain all the positive media coverage they want, but if Romney is willing to spend his hard earned money on his campaign, well, it’ll be difficult for McCain to win.
And then there’s also Giuliani who’s focusing completely on Florida. Imagine this: Giuliani one, Romney two next week. What’ll happen then? McCain will have fundraised his butt off, but it’s all wasted money. Will that encourage people to donate again?
Obviously we don’t know. We do know, however, that for all the arrogance as expressed by the McCain adviser above, the reality is that they’re having money problems and that they need money if they want to win.
Not just the nomination but also the national elections. Whether people like it or not, the nominee will need money. The Democrats are outraising their Republican counterparts by 10 to 1 (as a matter of speech). The Republicans will have to come up with a candidate who can either raise a whole lot of money, or someone who can fund his own campaign, to a large degree.
From a financial perspective, a McCain / Romney or Romney / McCain ticket would make sense.
Michae: RCP averages have McCain up in Florida. It’s going to be close, sure, but don’t discount media and momentum, which is propelling McCain forward (and not so much with Giuliani).
If McCain doesn’t win Florida, all bets are off. We’ll see the media annoint a new GOP frontrunner heading into Super Tuesday.
Reports about funding for Republican candidates ignore the fact that Romney has RAISED more money than any other candidate. To suggest that he might win because he is rich and can use his own money ignores the fact that ordinary people are supporting him with their contributions.
McCain may be broke but he garners lots of free media- nightly news, cable news, interviews, pundit discussions. I’m not sure if the thundering repetition of prepaid advertising is all that important to him at this juncture. He’s got high name recognition and is a well-known commodity. He seems to be doing nicely on a shoestring- much better than he did a year ago when he was swimming in cash.