WP: Dean campaign nearly broke by Jan. 27

[DJcairo]

Dean's Fundraising Matched by Spending
Aides Say Campaign Nearly Broke Jan. 27
By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 1, 2004; Page A04


By the time polls closed on Jan. 27 in New Hampshire, Howard Dean had spent roughly $40 million, setting a presidential campaign record and leaving his campaign close to broke, according to top strategists for the former Vermont governor.



The money went into a nine-state television advertising campaign costing $9.24 million and the hiring of a 500-member army of workers, most of whom were deployed in the key Iowa and New Hampshire battlegrounds, but with many others assigned to states with contests well into this month and early March.

"The Dean campaign had a clearly defined strategy. We had the message, the momentum, and we had the money. And we made a huge investment in Iowa and New Hampshire. They were the cornerstones of a strategy that would build momentum into the February 3 states and finally into Super Tuesday," said Steve Grossman, chairman of the Dean campaign.

"Obviously, we did not have anywhere near the return on that investment that we had hoped for," Grossman said. Dean finished third in Iowa, 19 points behind the winner, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), and second in New Hampshire, 12 points behind Kerry.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1971-2004Jan31.html

[MercutioATC]

1. How is having roughly $3M cash on hand "nearly broke"?

If he spent "roughly $40M" and he started with $41M+, that leaves at least $1M.

He's raised another $1.5M in the past two weeks.

That equates to $2.5M-$3M. He's hardly broke, especially compared to some of the other candidates.


ON EDIT:

He apparently has about $5M on http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/01/31/politics2245EST0692.DTLhand:


Hmmm...seems the rest aren't doing so well.....

[Julien Sorel]

10. Simple:

Campaign overhead is probably more than 1/2 million a week: salaries and rent and phone bills and bandwidth costs and the like. That's what it takes just to keep the organization intact, but static. Mailings? Travel? Advertising? Adds up in a hurry. A 500 person organization burns through capital at a furious rate, especially when it's spread all over the country and requires travel -- chartering a jet is expensive, so are hotel rooms in campaign stops. 5 million is nothing, and wouldn't last but a few weeks of an energetic campaign.

Simply amazing how many electoral 'experts' there are here who brazenly predict this or that, but who have no idea how expensive it is to run a campaign.

[MercutioATC]

13. Then THIS should really be scary:

"Front-runner Kerry spent nearly $23.6 million last year. The campaign raised about $23.5 million last year, including about $3 million he lent it. Kerry has lent his campaign about $6.8 million in all, but less than half was reflected in the year-end report. He started the new year with $1.6 million on hand and $3.8 million in debts. "

from : http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/01/31/politics2245EST0692.DTL

By your accounts, Kerry's in worse trouble than Dean.

[Julien Sorel]

14. No, he isn't.

Kerry is campaigning more sensibly than Dean -- 'just in time campaigning,' to borrow a term from the financial world. Kerry didn't have a nationwide organization to pay; instead, he's putting one together on the fly -- not as nice as having one in place, but more economical. Most campaigns are run that way, because the average voter is an idiot, and will do whatever his or her TV tells them to do when the time comes (if you doubt this for one second, volunteer to make phone calls for your candidate and talk to potential voters), so extended organizations put together months befopre a primary are largely wasted money. So Kerry's money was spent smarter than Dean's to begin with, since it wasn't spread out in areas that were largely irrelevant to the first couple of primaries. Remember Dean's great Texas ad campaign several months ago? Oh, how the Dean people were going apeshit over that one, and oh, how I bet the smarter ones among them regret it now, as it was money shitted down the toilet.


Of course, the second part of your post was nonsense, as Kerry is now raking in the money, and could loan himself more should the need arise. I'm actually becoming a little bit negative on Kerry, by the way, after seeing an abysmal outing of his where he parroted perfunctory-sounding nonsense about him coming and special interests going and doors hitting them on the ass or some such, but if you're going to find something to attack him on, campaign financing isn't likely to be fertile ground.

[joshcryer]

16. Dean's revenues haven't slowed a bit.

So... it would seem Dean has plenty of money at the momment. He's not in debt.

[Julien Sorel]

19. Of course they haven't.

That's why he skipped two weeks pay for his campaign staff, and stopped advertising. He's simply demonstrating to the country how frugal he is.

[joshcryer]

20. Um, he skipped two weeks pay to do some budget work.

It's common practice.

[Julien Sorel]

23. I see. So he has plenty of money,

but skipped two weeks of his campaign's pay to do 'budget work,' (whatever that is), and stopped running ads just to show the rest of the field he could kick their asses without advertising. What a candidate! Simply amazing.

[stickdog]

15. Dean has a lot more money than anybody else, doesn't he?

So what's your point?

More importantly, what's the point of all the "Dean's running out of money" news reports when Dean's got a lot more money than anybody else?

[stickdog]

2. OK. Can someone PLEASE tell me how having 5+million net

is GOING broke, but having to loan your own campaign 8+ million to stay afloat is looking good?

Dean's got a lot more money and a lot more resources than any other candidate unless you start including Kerry's and Edwards' personal holdings.

[wabeewoman]

3. They are speculating on the $$$

snip
The Dean campaign refused to disclose its current cash position, as did his rivals' campaigns. But Dean campaign sources have described the cash on hand right after the New Hampshire primary as being between $2 million and $5 million.

Thought this was interesting in light of the comments about how Dean 'blew' all his money on ads in Iowa and NH.
snip
Kerry outspent Dean on Iowa television, $3.74 million to $3.45 million, and was nearly able to match Dean's television spending in New Hampshire, where he was outspent $2.8 million to $2.33 million.
snip

[MercutioATC]

4. SShhhhhh! You're not conforming! BAD wabeewoman!

You can't win with these people. They have less cash on hand despite the fact that their candidate mortgaged a house and loaned his campaign over $6M and WE'RE the ones with money problems...

[stickdog]

9. So where did Kerry come up with this 6 million?

Rremember that he started January with less than $700,000 net cash -- even after loaning himself 2.9 million to keep his campaign afloat.

[JaneQPublic]

5. Oct. 03: WP reported Kerry spent more than he raised

It didn't mean the end of his campaign. So what's your point about Dean's campaign?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A32287-2003Oct15¬Found=true

Three prominent contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination - Sens. John F. Kerry (Mass.) and John Edwards (N.C.) and Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.) - spent more than they raised during the last quarter, depleting crucial resources as the Jan. 19 Iowa caucus and the Jan. 27 New Hampshire primary fast approach

---snip

Kerry spent about $7 million, $3 million more than he raised in the quarter. Kerry, one of the more successful Democratic fundraisers earlier this year, saw his cash balance fall from $10.8 million at the end of June to $7.8 million at the end of September.

[wtmusic]

7. Dean's the fiscal conservative

without a multimillionaire heiress to pay the bills.

He'll be OK. ;-)

[Feanorcurufinwe]

8. Kerry raised over two million in online donations in the last two weeks

[stickdog]

11. But Kerry spent 6 million on IA & NH ads alone!

And what about the helicopter and the direct mail and the consultants and the entire Kerry organization and all the travel costs? That's got to be another 4 million at least.

Kerry started January with less than $700,000 net cash -- even after loaning his campaign 2.9 million in the last quarter of 2003 to keep it afloat.

So that's about 3 million in carry over cash plus new contributions minus more than 10 million in January disbursements.

Where did Kerry get the extra 7+ million? Has he already loaned his campaign more than 10 million dollars?

[tmwat]

6. Numbers on all the candidates

As much as I want to see him stay in this thing, I don't see how Sharpton's gonna last too much longer even with matching funds.

http://tinyurl.com/282tr

[frustrated_lefty]

12. Yes, you have the right to gloat.

But notice, the title of the article proposes Dean is a dead duck on Jan 27. Guess what. It's February now. And he is still receiving vigorous support and will receive more money every time I get a paycheck.

[LosinIt]

17. yet another example of TBM,Trial By Media

[Shanty Oilish]

18. Dean is hurting, but it isn't necessarily fatal

You can be broke with $3M, if your obligations come to more than that.

If he picks up more delegates, and he will, he'll get more money. And if, for example, Clark or Edwards should falter, most everybody not satisfied with John Kerry will shift to Dean.

Howard Dean's major concern now is winning delegates sufficient to stay in the race. Look at the delegates. Rounding it all off, 20-some in NH have been settled, 200+ in Tuesday's primaries, 2000+ needed for nomination. Close to 90 percent remain unaccounted for after Tuesday. Most races have large percentages of undecided.

Let's not write off Howard Dean just yet. A month ago Kerry was down the well, and he climbed out. So can Dean.

[WiseMen]

21. Would Dean Mortgage his house and cash his trust fund? Kerry Did.

[MercutioATC]

22. Dean doesn't need to to keep his campaign solvent.

Apparently, Kerry did.

[MercutioATC]

24. Oops, on edit, "doesn't need to mortage houses"...