Rss@dailykos.com (brooklynbadboy) · Thursday, June 09, 2016, 3:08 pm
Okay, so you get that I'm going to be writing a lot about Trump's money problems for a while, right? Good.
First let’s start with the money quote:
"There’s no reason to raise that," Trump said about raising $1 billion. "I just don’t think I need nearly as much money as other people need because I get so much publicity. I get so many invitations to be on television. I get so many interviews, if I want them."
Campaign Action
If you are Pat Toomey or Ron Johnson, your heart just sank. If you are a Republican in a close district, pick your jaw up off the floor. Your party leader just said he won't be spending heavily in your state this fall because he won't be advertising. Or building organizational infrastructure. Or doing data. Or targeting. Or even building a volunteer apparatus. Instead, he's going to phone it in to Fox and Friends.
Facing you is a rapid scaling up of the Clinton campaign ground organization across a dozen states. And a popular incumbent president with the power of the office at his disposal. And a demographic problem that your own candidate has successfully made worse. We aren't even talking about the guns your opponent will be firing at you. If you're Mark Kirk, you just wet your pants. If you're Rob Portman, you're scared shitless by remarks like these.
If Trump won't raise or fork over the cash, that means Prince Reebus is on hook. He hasn't got nearly enough resources to compete with a fully built-out presidential campaign. Being on cable news all the time is sufficient for a primary. A general election audience requires you to be on a helluva lot more channels, especially online. Because most viewers barely watch cable news. Hell, many folks today don't even have cable anymore.
On Tuesday night, as Trump was officially locking up the Republican nomination, the Wall Street Journal reported that he was already behind the ball when it came to fundraising. While Hillary Clinton is just gearing up for general election fundraising, she has a long-standing fundraising team in place, and a big set of donors and fundraisers to hit up for contributions. Trump doesn't.
The dagger in that article was this paragraph, quoting well-known Republican fundraiser Fred Malek:
[Malek] called Mr. Trump’s fundraising disadvantage “huge and not widely understood.” He added: “Unless he’s willing to write a huge personal check, which is unlikely, I believe Trump will have a financial disparity of $300 million to $500 million.”
McConnell and Ryan will do what they can to shore up their majority, but make no mistake about it: Trump has just put the GOP Establishment on defense. The Senate is definitely tilting Democratic enough already. The House may very well be next.
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