That, folks, would be a record — by a lot.:
BOSTON Deval Patrick, a Democratic candidate for governor, appears to have raised a record sum during the month of August.
He took in 695-thousand dollars from outside donors.
The total was divulged by his campaign in advance of it filing an official finance report with the state next week.
It would surpass the 547-thousand dollars raised from individual donors by Governor Mitt Romney in May 2002.
How much TV is that? Is that where the money mostly goes from here on out?
Anyone know?
Please share widely!
Now I know why we’re beginning to see lawn signs sprout up all over the place. I had heard some anecdotal evidence that things were going well (e.g., a mid-month fundraiser in Pittsfield that was well attended, and one in the Springfield area a few days ago that attracted 250+ people), but I had no idea of the overall magnitude.
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As a Patrick supporter, I find this news very encouraging for a couple of reasons. One, it gives the campaign more breathing room to spend money on media other than TV (I’m not aware of any specific plans, but I hope they’ll consider such things as billboards and radio spots), while at the same time going toe-to-toe with the other candidates for the 30-second sound bite crowd.
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Two (and equally important, I think), it says a lot about the passion and commitment of Patrick’s supporters. People who write a check to a candidate are highly likely not only to vote for him, it seems to me, but to encourage their friends and family to do the same.
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I seem to remember from the month-ago report that more than half the contributions were $100 or less, and that ~54% of donors were women (about double the traditional ratio). It’s likely that pattern hasn’t changed much. This is another indication of broad-based support that should translate well into votes. We’ll know soon enough!
that part of this is because DP is actively fundraising (preaching to the choir) instead of out trying to create more converts. This isn’t a surprise — it’s been the game plan all along. But, if Reilly and Gabs are spending their time at town gatherings drumming up support, it would explain part of the discrepency in fundraising.
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This isn’t to knock Deval. I’m thrilled to read of his success. He had my vote at the convention and he’ll get it again on the 19th.
that Reilly isn’t trying to fundraise as much as he can while “creating more converts.” And, as everybody knows, why bother donating to Gabrieli if he’s going to do it himself. (For whatever it’s worth, I think Lamont had a better strategy of fundraising and donating the money (doubleing whatever is raised online etc.))
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This is amazing news for Deval and shows that he can be competitive financially in October.
and guess what: there’s one big obstacle: Chris Gabrieli. Gabrieli will be the candidate still standing in October because he holds his own with Dems and appeals to Unenrolls to a much greater degree than Deval or Reilly according to recent polls.
I hope afertig and other Deval Patrick supporters are not looking past the 19th. You don’t get to October unless you win in September and I like Gabrieli’s position as well.
With fewer and fewer votes out there to get, Patrick both has to focus on getting them – and maintaining his current supporters. While there are lots of Patrick supporters like me who have “drunk the kool-aid” and I would say his supporters are more steadfast than the other candidates (boston globe survey backs up that claim)… you have to keep your base excited. If anything, the Republicans have taught us that.
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So going to fundraisers and such like the Peperelli (sp?) one is good in that it both raised more than 15k in one event and it also gave Deval supporters a chance to get a little something in return for their donation (a personal speech, photos, handshakes, etc.) to keep them excited, energized and ready to not only vote, but help drive the vote (literally, in some cases LOL).
Uh, It’s Pepperell. đŸ™‚ North Central Mass gets no respect.
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I was hanging with the host of the Pepperell event today doing visiblilty in Groton (another No. Central Mass town not many people know the location of g) and she told me that folks have continued to put small dollar donations on her Pepperell Team Patrick page and between the online donations, and what she gets in the mail they are closing in on $20k. Pretty amazing. If you want to help her crack $20k, you can stop by her Team Patrick page and spread the love.
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The Pepperell fundraiser was put together mostly by folks who have never had this much involvement in a statewide election. Some had volunteered for Kerry/Edwards ’04, but the majority had just seen Deval Patrick and were moved to get involved.
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Not really on topic, but the visibility in Groton went very well. The Groton folks have an awesome amount of commuter traffic. We got flipped off twice and two thumbs down, but the majority (like hundreds) were car honks and thumbs up and not just from the usual Prius-driving suspects. Men in work trucks. Hummers. A lady driving a giant Suburban with a huge “W” sticker. Subaru drivers in particular love them some Deval. đŸ™‚
You raised a lot, so you get my respect… even if I don’t know where Peperelli (lol) is.
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However, I do know where Groton is. One of my best friends is from there – but he just got shipped out to training camp for a year and a half away from home.
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Glad to see the President isn’t overexerting our nation’s “reservists.”
Is a beautiful little town! One of it’s big employers was New England Business Systems (which was bought out by Deluxe Check Corp.). I had the pleasure of working for NEBS during the transition, and I can say that I found the Groton employees to be great people. It doesn’t suprise me that Deval would get a lot of support from there. Many people who worked their entire lives for one company now understand the harsh reality of buyouts and jobs being shipped out of MA.
How do Deval’s policies encourage corporations to locate within Massachusetts? Is he for corporate tax relief? I didn’t think so.
Companies that offer good jobs locate in places where the kind of people they want to hire want to live. Taxes are the dues those companies have to pay to get the best employees, and to create an environment that is attractive to them. Some places don’t do that, and corporations locate in those places just for the cheap rent and low taxes, and then hire the lowest wage workers they can find. We don’t want Massachusetts to be that kind of place.
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Our biggest obstacle is housing. We have created a place where many of the best workers want to live, but unfortunately, too many of them move elsewhere because they can’t afford to live here. If we can make it more affordable for people to live here (which doesn’t necessarily mean lower housing prices – it might mean, for example, lower health care costs), then we can attract more of the kinds of people that will make companies offerring good come here. Even better, we can attract more of the people who create new companies.
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In the meantime, cutting taxes on corporations would be a misguided short term mirage of a non-solution. We’d hobble our ability to solve our real problems, do nothing to attract better employees and entrepeneurs, and in the bargain, take a step towards becoming more of a low-tax, low-wage, impoverished economy like New Hampshire or Mississippi.
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Deval Patrick has the right ideas on this front, mostly.
The companies of which you write would be great additions to the MA economy. I think they would still want to come here if the corporate taxes were lower. I also think that if the tax rates were lower more companies would consider coming here.
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