O’Malley’s presidential campaign is perilously close to financial collapse

[moobu2]

"With barely 10 weeks before Democrats start picking their presidential nominee, former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley’s campaign is perilously close to financial collapse.

The Democratic hopeful this week began asking the roughly 30 staffers at his Baltimore headquarters to redeploy to Iowa and elsewhere, a tacit acknowledgment that he will need a surprisingly strong showing in the first caucus state to stay in the race.

And the campaign is now planning to seek public matching funds, a move that could help pay bills in the short term but undercut the candidate’s ability to compete once the voting begins. In recent cycles, major candidates have opted out of the antiquated matching system because it imposes state-by-state spending caps now considered impractical.

“You might get the plane off the ground, but then you quickly run out of gas,” said Joe Trippi, a veteran Democratic operative who served as the co-manager of the 2008 campaign of John Edwards, the last major Democratic candidate to accept matching funds and the accompanying spending limits."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/omalleys-presidential-campaign-is-perilously-close-to-financial-collapse/2015/11/19/f720ed74-8e1a-11e5-acff-673ae92ddd2b_story.html

[brooklynite]

1. An political acquaintance invited me to an O'Malley fundraiser in NYC

I can't image who they're raising money from.

[DavidDvorkin]

2. I'm not surprised by this, but I am saddened by it.

[hedgehog]

3. There are a lot of people who want to vote for O'Malley

"the next time around" or who would make him their second choice.

It doesn't work that way. You can't put a candidate back in the freezer and take them out in 4 or 8 years.

[yeoman6987]

4. He probably should have run for senator.

We have an open seat in Maryland and had he began early enough, he probably would have kept others from running. He was probably going for VP, but I don't think either one would pick him. He probably should drop out.

[artislife]

5. Why not? They did it with Hillary. Nt

[DemocraticWing]

6. Maybe not the freezer, but how about the Senate?

It might be too late to jump into the race for Mikulski's seat, unless he dropped out tomorrow. Ben Cardin might be looking to retire in 2018 however.

Although if our nominee loses in 2016, O'Malley could start laying the groundwork for a second run in 2020 immediately. I think he would be an early favorite.

[2pooped2pop]

7. tell that to Hillary. n/t

[j-gal]

8. more on public funding

Martin O’Malley Likely To Accept Public Funding, Campaign Says
BuzzFeed News

Martin O’Malley is poised to become the first major candidate in eight years to publicly finance his presidential campaign. The former Maryland governor will likely accept matching payments once the Federal Election Commission deems him eligible in a decision expected as early as this week, an O’Malley aide confirmed. “We’re likely to be deemed eligible and likely to accept,” the aide said.

The move reflects a campaign up against its own limitations, short on time and money, yet pressing forward. After five months in the race, 18 trips to Iowa and 10 to New Hampshire — after trying again and again to will the polls upward, to find his footing and finally take off — O’Malley is still trying, though now with equal parts resolve and resignation. His team is pursuing a public funding option that would keep them afloat in the short term, while locking the campaign into a set of restrictions that would almost certainly guarantee failure in the long term.

The taxpayer-funded system for presidential primaries, designed to match contributions up to $250 per person, would help sustain the O’Malley operation into the early caucuses and primaries. But should he agree as planned to receive matching funds, O’Malley will also submit to severe spending limits, curbing resources overall and in each state.

The public finance spending rules would cripple any candidate. But the state limits would pose a particular challenge for O’Malley, whose advisers announced a plan this week to redirect staff and resources to the early states, with an emphasis on Iowa, as reported first by MSNBC. If the election were held this year, under the public finance system, his campaign would not be able to spend more than $1.8 million in Iowa and $960,000 in New Hampshire, according to the FEC’s current estimate of the annually adjusted limits.

The matching program also limits a campaign’s primary spending to $48 million — about half the $100 million fundraising goal Hillary Clinton’s campaign set for 2015 alone.

The last major candidate to adhere to such strict spending limits was John Edwards, the former U.S. senator and vice presidential nominee who opted into the matching program in the fall of 2007.

His campaign manager, Joe Trippi, now likens a publicly financed candidate to a terminally ill person on life support. If O’Malley goes through with his plan to accept matching funds, “that is effectively the end of his campaign,” said Trippi.

“No campaign that is serious can win taking that money.”

“It is a brutally tough decision to make,” he said. “They know this — it’s akin to a doctor sitting down a patient and telling them they are terminally ill, informing them that they have days to live and there is nothing that can be done to save them, but there is something that can be done to give them another few months of life.”

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rubycramer/martin-omalley-likely-to-accept-public-funding-campaign-says

[elleng]

10. If you don't burn money on high priced consultants, media advisers, and pollsters,

the spending limits are plenty of money to do meaningful and effective voter contact. A friend said, 'give me $3.1 million to spend in Colorado and we'll win this state!' Much of the spending in Iowa is actually spent in the Omaha, Nebraska and the Quad City (Illinois) media markets, so those totals are counted there. Same with New Hampshire, where you're biting into the Mass spending limit of $4.1 million by placing ads in the Boston media market.

[Vattel]

9. I wonder what his motivation to keep going is.

Maybe he is thinking about 2024. I can't imagine he expects a VP spot. Idk, maybe he just wants to see how good he can do in Iowa. That could be useful information to have for a future run at the presidency.

[NurseJackie]

12. Interesting observation.

He wasn't just "testing the waters" by dipping his big toe in. He wants to dive into the deep-end to see if it's something worth pursuing in the future.

[NurseJackie]

11. The sooner he withdraws, the sooner he can begin to build-bridges with the Clinton campaign.

If he'd taken it all the way to the convention, there would have been (by necessity) more attacks and barbs toward Hillary, and that would end up making him an unlikely choice for VP.

By getting out now, instead of later, the ruffled feathers can be smoothed and peace can be made. He can endorse Hillary and set things up so that he's the most logical choice for VP pick.

I'm not sure how a NY/MD ticket would play nationwide. Depending on one's viewpoint, MD (a mid-Atlantic state) is sometimes viewed as a Southern state, and sometimes viewed as a Northern state.

O'Malley's often disappointing supporters not withstanding, I think he'd be a fine pick for VP.