ABC News reports that Ron Paul will officially end a Presidential campaign that was pretty much over in February tonight in Texas:
Rep. Ron Paul’s presidential campaign, a pugnacious, ideological crusade against big government and interventionist leanings in the Republican party, will officially end Thursday at a rally outside the Texas GOP’s convention, ABC News has learned.
Paul told supporters back in March, in a video posted on his Web site, that he was “winding down” his campaign and planning a new phase to what he and fans call their “revolution.”
The new phase of the revolution officially begins with a speech tonight in Houston and a Web video to be posted on his site, officially ending Paul’s presidential campaign and freeing up the more than $4.7 million in campaign cash for investment in a new advocacy group, The Campaign for Liberty.
The new entity will be used to push a slate of libertarian-minded Republican candidates for public office in local districts nationwide, according to a description provided to ABC News by the Paul campaign. Paul also recently published a new book on his political philosophy, The Revolution: A Manifesto.
The Texas congressman’s campaign to win the Republican nomination raised about $33 million in nine months, and he and his organizers hope to reignite that grassroots support for the new organization. They’re setting a goal of raising $35 million over the next year.
Despite the dedication and moxie of Paul’s supporters, maintaining that level of interest without the vehicle of Paul’s presidential campaign could be difficult, especially given the frenetic, laissez faire interaction between Paul and his supporters through the presidential campaign. The congressman in many ways served as a figurehead, while independent actors drawn to his message did most of the organizing.
The Liberty Campaign is meant as a means for harnessing some of that energy and maintaining interest on a more micro level, by recruiting like-minded people to seek political office.
Quite honestly, this is something that should have been done a long time ago. It might have helped candidates like Amit Singh or, although it was unlikely to begin with, New Jersey Senate candidate Murray Sabrin, to win primaries that are already come and gone, or at least make more of an impact than they did.
And the fact that there’s only $ 4.7 million left to spread around after a Presidential campaign that raised tens of millions of dollars by the end of 2007 makes me wonder if a lot of money wasn’t wasted tilting at windmills like a 21st Century Don Quixote. It’s nice to say you fought the fight, but what matters is what you have to show for it in the end.
In any event, here’s hoping that the money left actually leads to something useful.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
I think the Paul campaign was waiting patiently for the last primaries to be over so they didn’t loose any opportunities to add supporters to their contact list.
June 13th, 2008 at 3:39 am
Mark: I agree with you, they wanted to give all an opportunity to vote and organise. It actually also helps (campaign) Barr and Baldwin. Now, Doug,
I do not think money was the issue why Sabrin and Singh lost. It has more to do witht he party boss undemocratic structure from top down, instead of bottom up (grassroot). In NJ they obviously were never satisfied with Sabrin, they made an appeal to Giuliani also and seems that they wanted a pro-choice candidate. In the case of Singh it was the “false letter” that probably hurt him in the end. Both Sabrin and SIngh raised MORE than their competitors, so money was NOT the problem: name recognition played a more important role. Many RP candidates are in strong Democratic areas, so their chances probably not too great, but we will see. Hopefully some new candidates will be announced. Paul can certainly campaign for them now…
June 13th, 2008 at 5:47 am
Stefan,
Will never know will we ?
A few notes, though.
Money aside, Sabrin never had a chance for one simple reason — he was out of tune with the New Jersey GOP. I lived in New Jersey for 22 years and the idea that Sabrin had a chance to win the nomination really is laughable.
Moreoever, the fact of the matter is that no Republican candidate had any chance of winning a statewide election, especially not this year.
As for Singh, he was done in by a lying rascal of an opponent.
My broader point is this — there was some $ 20 million in the bank in January and now it’s down to less than $ 5 million. I would think that better thinks could have been done with that $ 15 million than spending it on a Presidential campaign that was having no impact whatsoever.