Dean Coffers running on empty

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2004-01-30 04:16pm

Dean Campaign Treasury Dwindles to $5M
Fri Jan 30,10:42 AM ET Add Top Stories - AP to My Yahoo!

By SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Howard Dean (news - web sites)'s record campaign fund has dropped from $41 million to around $5 million, forcing him to cut costs as new front-runner John Kerry (news - web sites)'s fund-raising fortunes rise.

A source directly familiar with Dean's finances, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Dean had about $5 million on hand after all bills were paid. A second source, a senior campaign official, confirmed that Dean's cash on hand had fallen to seven figures.

Contributions slowed dramatically in the hours after Dean replaced campaign manager Joe Trippi on Wednesday, but Dean supporters were heartened by a fund-raising pickup on Thursday. His Web site showed he was raising money at a clip of about $10,000 per hour, with more than $1 million in online donations since last Saturday.

When asked whether there would be layoffs as Dean looks to cut costs, a senior official said Dean was serious when he said the campaign would be leaner. The official said that rather than wholesale staff cuts, the campaign would reduce or shift staff as it makes decisions about which primary states to compete in.

Dean, whose Internet-fueled $41 million in fund raising last year was a Democratic record, is now withholding staff salaries and has decided against airing ads in any of the seven states voting next Tuesday.

Dean's belt-tightening came as Kerry raised more than $500,000 over the Internet in the two days since his New Hampshire victory Tuesday night.

Kerry's best day online before his Iowa victory last week brought in just $50,000 to $60,000, spokesman Michael Meehan said. In all, he has raised more than $1.6 million over the Internet since the Jan. 19 caucuses.

Kerry's flood of online donations arrives a little more than a month after he announced he had mortgaged his family's Boston home to secure a $6 million loan to keep his campaign afloat. He hasn't decided whether he will lend his campaign more money, Meehan said Thursday.

"Senator Kerry will make decisions about how he funds and executes his campaign on a daily basis," Meehan said, declining to say how much cash the campaign has on hand.

Kerry and Dean are the only two Democrats skipping public financing. Dean raised nearly double Kerry's cash total last year.

President Bush (news - web sites) is also foregoing public money for the primaries. He raised $132.7 million and spent $33.6 million last year for his re-election effort, starting the new year with $99 million left, a finance report he filed late Thursday with the Federal Election Commission (news - web sites) shows. The presidential candidates' year-end reports are due at midnight Saturday.

By opting out of public financing, Bush, Dean and Kerry freed themselves of its $45 million primary spending limit but turned away monthly government campaign checks.

Those checks won't prove a very lucrative financial lifeline for participating candidates, however, even as they try to make their cash stretch through a monthlong crunch of more than a dozen primaries.

The departures of three candidates from the taxpayer-financed program left it flush enough to give participants their full monthly payment when the first checks went out in early January.

But with little time to replenish itself from tax returns, the program now has only enough cash to give candidates roughly 43 cents to 45 cents of each dollar they're entitled to when new checks go out Monday.

Before word of the shortfall, Dennis Kucinich (news - web sites) had been expecting $2.4 million in his February check; Wesley Clark (news - web sites), $1.4 million; Joe Lieberman (news - web sites), about $389,000; and John Edwards (news - web sites), about $302,000.

Candidates will have to take out loans if they want to make up the difference until the program can afford to pay their full shares.

The program matches the first $250 of each private campaign donation, up to about $18.7 million per candidate. Taxpayers can check a box on their income-tax returns to direct $3 to it at no cost to themselves.

In another campaign finance development, Federal Election Commission lawyers have weighed in on how they think the nation's broad new ban on the use of "soft money" — corporate, union and unlimited donations — for federal election activity affects tax-exempt political groups.

They are recommending that the FEC find such groups must use "hard money" — limited contributions from individuals and political action committees — when funding ads, mailings or phone banks that name only a federal candidate and promote or attack that candidate.

Get-out-the-vote messages that support or oppose a federal candidate and also mention nonfederal candidates, or those that do not mention a particular federal candidate, can be paid for with a mix of hard and soft money, they said.

The commission is expected to consider the recommendation next week. FEC lawyers made it after a new pro-Republican group formed to counter the soft money efforts of Democratic anti-Bush groups sought guidance on how the law would affect its activities.

That Giant sucking sound you hear is the Dean campaign going down hard.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2004-01-31 09:31pm

Realllly bad time for a campaign cash-crunch. The way things are looking now, even if Dean manages a win in one of the upcoming primaries in the next two weeks it won't be anywhere near enough to reenergise his candidacy. And the other candidates are in worse shape.

Looks like it's Kerry for the nomination.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2004-01-31 09:56pm

41 to 5.....ouch.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2004-01-31 11:57pm

Actually, I read an article today suggesting all of the Democratic contenders are very short on cash right now.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2004-02-01 12:37am

Dean is so done and people know it, so they are jumping ship while they can.

The Kernel · Post by **The Kernel** » 2004-02-01 01:52am

Howedar wrote:Actually, I read an article today suggesting all of the Democratic contenders are very short on cash right now.

Kerry is doing okay, he's had a great boost since Iowa. But none of them can really compare to Bush's $180 million war chest.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-02-01 02:28am

The Kernel wrote:
Howedar wrote:Actually, I read an article today suggesting all of the Democratic contenders are very short on cash right now.
Kerry is doing okay, he's had a great boost since Iowa. But none of them can really compare to Bush's $180 million war chest.

Where did Bush get $180 million? Last time I checked he's only got half that.

JME2 · Post by **JME2** » 2004-02-03 02:24am

Master of Ossus wrote:
The Kernel wrote:
Howedar wrote:Actually, I read an article today suggesting all of the Democratic contenders are very short on cash right now.
Kerry is doing okay, he's had a great boost since Iowa. But none of them can really compare to Bush's $180 million war chest.
Where did Bush get $180 million? Last time I checked he's only got half that.

Just do as Deep Throat said. "Follow the Money."

Guardsman Bass · Post by **Guardsman Bass** » 2004-02-03 04:57pm

I heard that Dean actually went to his paid staffers and announced to all of them that he wasn't going to pay them.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-02-03 05:01pm

Kerry had only 1.6 million a month ago. No doubt he's gotten quite a bit more since then.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2004-02-03 05:04pm

The Kernel wrote:
Howedar wrote:Actually, I read an article today suggesting all of the Democratic contenders are very short on cash right now.
Kerry is doing okay, he's had a great boost since Iowa. But none of them can really compare to Bush's $180 million war chest.

Well, while that is a shit load of $, to be fair, Bush hasn't had to fend off a bunch of primary challengers like the Dems have the last couple months. Bush can hold on to his $ for a few more months while the Dem canidates have to spend to defend themselves and attack their rivals.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-02-03 05:08pm

Also, Bush will never have an 180 million war chest, most likely. He may spend that amount or even more during the race, but I doubt he'll ever have that much cash on hand.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-02-03 05:50pm

Knife wrote: Well, while that is a shit load of $, to be fair, Bush hasn't had to fend off a bunch of primary challengers like the Dems have the last couple months. Bush can hold on to his $ for a few more months while the Dem canidates have to spend to defend themselves and attack their rivals.

They're also getting a lot of free publicity, right now, though. I think that might help them, in the long run, since they didn't really seem to have massive internal divisions within their policies.

JME2 · Post by **JME2** » 2004-02-04 12:03pm

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... &ncid=2043

Now we know where all that money went to...