As Money Flows to Kerry, Challengers Must Scrimp

[isbister]

About 250 members of retired Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark's headquarters staff in Little Rock voted yesterday to forgo $240,000 in salaries to pay for TV ads in Tennessee -- one of many signs that financial struggles are besetting the campaigns seeking to challenge front-runner Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) for the Democratic presidential nomination.

All the major challengers -- Clark, former Vermont governor Howard Dean and Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) -- have decided not to invest in Michigan's caucuses on Saturday, an expensive contest in which Kerry holds a strong lead in the polls. And only Dean is making tentative forays into Washington state, which will hold caucuses the same day.

This is the stage in the presidential nomination fight in which money flows to winners and steadily dries up for the rest of the field. For challengers, the less money they have, the more states they must skip -- and concede.

"It's painful. We used to get calls back from Lieberman supporters. Now we don't," a Clark fundraiser said. "Squeaking by in one state while the other guy sweeps the board with five states doesn't excite anyone."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13897-2004Feb4.html

[AnnitaR]

1. Well if the other candidates were millionaires I guess they

could bail their own campaign out like Kerry.

I would like to see concrete proof that Kerry is raking in the dough right now. I do not believe he has that kind of support.

[GalleryGod]

4. Myself, Being A Hardboiled Realist, Sent him a C-note-You do the math!?

$50.00 Sept-December....$200.00 the last 3 weeks.:wow:
Waiting to "place their bets" like me-lots of Old line Dems are kicking-in now.

Your Man in the Faculty Lounge:hangover: crunchin trackin' polling,
:beer: G.G.

[isbister]

6. Clark, Dean, and Edwards are millionaires

perhaps they just don't have the confidence in their own campaign as Kerry does.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

8. True.

While not as wealthy as Kerry, Dean certainly had other options due to his campaign finance decision.

[maddezmom]

2. thanks for reminding all of us to donate

:) Hopefully Clark can raise another 1/4 mil today.

[NV1962]

3. Next!

See the choo-choo whistling along on its one-day haul:



https://secure.clark04.com/

[joshcryer]

7. Hey, cool! Go Clark!

I didn't know they had a little fundraising thingy for Clark. This must've been done recently?

[corporatewhore]

5. Kerry can always ask his buddies at Monsanto PNAC or FOX for moolah

[blm]

9. I think this is quite noble of the Clark workers to do.

I felt the same way they did last year when things looked tough for Kerry. You pull through because you BELIEVE in your candidate.