Well, that explains a lot.
From July 29 to Oct. 20, Walker raised $10.4 million and Burke raised $10.2 million, according to their campaigns. Burke said she has put $5 million of her own money into the race, with about $4.5 million of that coming in recent months.
Like it or not, fundraising is one of the best indicators of a candidate’s real support. Anybody can say that they support a candidate, but it takes a real supporter to part with their own money to help finance the campaign. The fact that Burke raised half as much as Walker in the final months of the campaign tells us that her campaign has failed to catch fire in the grass roots and also failed to attract many of the big donors who are willing to bet on her victory.
In light of this fundraising report, the move by Burke to bring the unpopular president into Wisconsin today to campaign in an overwhelmingly Democratic district (boost turnout) and attend a high-dollar fundraiser (raise the big money that Burke can’t) makes a lot of sense.
If Walker was wealthy and had put $5 million into his own campaign, we’d have had ten Journal stories on it already.
I think the fact Burke is spending $5 million of her own money, as disclosed yesterday, is extremely newsworthy. It needs to be noted, because it highlights that she is a limousine liberal that hasn’t worked more than a couple days in her life.
The Journal knows that reminding people of Burke’s wealth might hurt her with certain voters. So they downplay that election filing.
So even after an extended sabbatical, you can write yourself a multi-million check.
Where do I sign up?
If, “fundraising is one of the best indicators of a candidate’s real support”, and Ron Johnson funded 71% of his election, how on earth did he win?
How about when a candidates funds come from a few very rich individuals?