Reports on Campaign Financing Show McCain Trouble
In the midst of all the bruhaha over The New York Times story about Sen. John McCain's friendship with a lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, another story has kind of fallen off the radar.
Yesterday it was reporting day for the candidates - time to tell the Federal Election Commission how much money the campaigns raised and spent in January. And when John McCain submitted his report, it showed that in January, he basically spent more than he had, including what he fundraised that month ... despite the fact that he was honing in on the GOP presidential nomination at the time.
Matt Stoller at Talk Left writes: "I'm sure he's brought in something since he secured the nomination, but he really is starting from scratch. And unless I missed it, I haven't seen any stories on the massive influx of online or establishment money to McCain. It'll happen eventually I'm sure, but it's worth noting that the campaign hasn't been bragging about it as of yet."
Hilzoy at The Daily Dish suggests that while things are not great for McCain, it's not as bad as Stoller thinks - there's always that loan - which as we wrote about earlier, the FEC is also interested in. (NPR's Peter Overby seconds this idea - he writes that as long as McCain has access to that line of credit, he can keep afloat.) Hilzoy does note that McCain owes $720,164.27 on his Amex card. (But think of the points!)
If McCain does not show more fund raising muscle in the next report, however, it could mean his front runner status is not turning into dollar signs - a potential problem for November. Because his Democratic rivals are fairly rolling in greenbacks (although Barack Obama has a lot more to use in the primaries than Clinton does - more than $20 million of the $29 million she has on hand can only be used in a general election contest). Patrick Ruffini writes at his website that it looks like the Obama campaign will raise at least $60 million in February.
A week ago, The New York Times reported that McCain hired Mercer Reynolds, who helped President Bush raise a record $273 million for the 2004 re-election campaign, would be the national finance co-chairman for McCain.
6:05 PM ET | 02-21-2008 | permalink
