It’s coming on December 16th, and what I don’t understand is why nobody else is even trying to mimic this obviously successful fundraising tactic:
Rep. Ron Paul is poised to outraise the rest of the Republican field this quarter, fueled by his rock star status on the Internet.
As of Monday afternoon, he has clocked in $10.5 million, mostly through the Internet.
Such a showing for the Texas congressman has shocked other campaigns — not to mention the media. Most spectacular was the $4.3 million Paul raised on Nov. 5. But the dollars have continued to roll in: Last week, following the Republican CNN/YouTube debate in St. Petersburg, Fla., Paul amassed another $531,000 on Nov. 30.
Compare that to former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.), whose shrewd tapping of the online community raised a total of $751,000 online during the whole of November.
Paul’s supporters are planning another “money-bomb,” as the candidate’s one-day fundraisers are called, for Dec. 16, the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, which helped spark the American Revolution.
“Dec. 16th is going to be bigger than the Nov. 5th money-bomb,” Jim Forsythe, a former Air Force pilot who leads Paul’s New Hampshire MeetUp group, predicted.
Interestingly enough, this event will happen right before the Christmas holidays, which is when most pundits expects a large part of the American public, even in Iowa and New Hampshire, to tune out of politics for at least a few days. What impact that will have on the polls, or on the races themselves, is unclear but the Paul campaign could benefit from getting a really big burst of publicity right before the holidays.
Meanwhile, it looks like the grassroots are concentrating their efforts on New Hampshire:
What has been most impressive about Paul’s online popularity is how it is translating to offline, on-the-ground operation. Forsythe helps organize door-to-door canvassing, while Vijay Boyapati is trying to recruit 1,000 volunteers from across the country to help canvass for Paul through OperationLiveFreeorDie.
Boyapati, a 29-year-old engineer, packed his bags and moved to New Hampshire a few weeks ago to create the online initiative after quitting his job at Google.
(…)
He is also urging the Paulites, Paul’s intensely loyal, Web-savvy supporters, to donate $5 on the site FiveForFreedom.com on Dec. 5 to help house the 1,000 volunteers across New Hampshire.
“We’re confident we’ll make a big showing in this state,” Boyapati said.
Paul has been inching up in New Hampshire, to the point where several polls show him a 8% in the Grante State. Given the realities on the ground, a fourth place finish would be good, but a third place finish would be great and may just throw a monkey wrench into the campaign.
I also am constantly confused that other candidates (local, state and nationally) do not mimic Paul’s success in this area. We are in a time where most people have gotten over the fright of giving money over the internet and online shopping increases every year around this time; so it really should just be looked at as one more transaction transacted for the season. In explaining how this can increase find raising exponentially at the local level I have found that the baby boomers (the age group most the candidates still reside in) just don’t get it and are the most resistant….my 85 year old grandmother does, my 18 year old niece does but not the baby boomer candidates. Let use all the tools we have at our deposal in the election process.
The 4th q. we did amazingly and now need to focus on creating a buzz in 2008 so they don’t downplay all our efforts as “last years”.
Be ready for the next ron paul money bomb January 1st!
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This is my first election as it is for many even though I am 27 years old. Dr. Paul has given us all something to finally believe in again which is the CONSTITUTION. Great information on this site and happily bookmarked. thank you for all the reading.