McCain Fundraiser: Thompson Trying to Poach
by Ryan Sager
Wed, 13 Jun 2007 at 1:25 PM
updated Wed, 13 Jun 2007 at 1:18 PM
A top donor and fundraiser for the McCain campaign, speaking on condition of anonymity, tells LatestPolitics.com that the Fred Thompson proto-campaign organization is busy calling McCain donors and pitching the former Tennessee senator as the consensus conservative candidate.
In a telephone interview with LP, the source says that he has personally received two phone calls from Thompson associates, one months ago and one in the last week or so, and that several other major donors have received similar calls.
"They are contacting people," the source said, adding: "If you were advising the Thompson campaign and wanted to raise a lot of money quickly, where would you go? … I think they'd be derelict if they didn't come after our people."
The Thompson campaign has previously insisted it is not courting potential opponents' donors, but did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this story.
The McCain donor characterized the Thompson associates' pitch as follows:
"There's no true frontrunner. … No one else is representing the conservative cause who has a real chance at this. … Here's somebody who's in the first tier. … He would represent us well, he's a good candidate."
The McCain donor said that the calls did not badmouth Mr. McCain, but that they did point out the obvious: that the Arizona senator has not caught on with conservatives.
The only public switch of a fundraiser from the McCain camp so far has been John M. Dowd, a longtime friend of Mr. McCain's and once his personal lawyer. That switch became public late last week.
Other than Mr. Dowd's switch, the source said, "As far as converting people from McCain to Thompson, I'd say they've had no success." The source said, however, "That doesn't mean some of our contributors won't contribute to Thompson. … There are a lot of people with the capacity and the interest to spread their money around."
In the first quarter of this year, Mr. McCain came in an embarrassing third place in fundraising, behind Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. Questions continue to dog his campaign as to whether it can raise the money to stay competitive, a major test of which will come in July with the release of second-quarter fundraising numbers. Meanwhile, Mr. Thompson, who has yet to formally announce his candidacy, has passed Mr. McCain in some polls, putting him in second place nationally, behind Mr. Giuliani.
Messrs. Romney and Giuliani have also lost backers to Mr. Thompson since his intention to run has become clearer.
Related Topics: GOP Primary
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