Wednesday, April 16th, 2008...10:07 am
Dagnabbit!
Well, it looks like Tim Bee is able to raise money after all. Good for him, I suppose. Although, as a well known Gabrielle Giffords Yes Man, I’d like to point out that Giffords raised slightly more money than Bee, and still has far more cash on hand than Bee. She’s beating him by more than a million dollars on that score, as a matter of fact.
A couple of observers up in the Valley of the Yakes wonder about Bee’s burn rate, given the number of consultants in his employ. I wasn’t able to track down a detailed list of expenditures, but Bee’s campaign reported spending $227,278, whereas Giffords has spent $386,219. It is helpful to note that Giffords campaign has been up and running longer than Bee’s.
Given that Bee seems to have found a way to not pay for his campaign ads, maybe he doesn’t need to have as much money as Giffords.
5 Comments
April 16th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Is the Bee/Giffords race going to soon be about anything other than which of them raised the most money?
April 17th, 2008 at 12:12 am
Bee’s burn rate is slightly lower than Giffords, he spent $101,931 in the last quarter, where Giffords spent $118,438.
As mentioned though, cash-on-hand isn’t even close. Bee needs to have excellent fundraising quarters the rest of the way to become competitive in the money department. As I know all too well, getting outspent 3 to 1 by Gabrielle Giffords is not a good way to win an election.
April 17th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Oh Liza (smile)…your favorite candidate for President is probably going to raise a billion. I know that money in politics stinks, but when so much comes from small donor, it aint so bad…especially as we see Obama has raised it.
We don’t have much to talk about really right now other than that…at least those of us who like to read tea leaves and think about the strength of campaigns.
BUT, you have to admit, I do try issues fairly often when supporting Giffords. Let me try again. Giffords is right on education, right on the environment, right on fiscal responsibility (e.g, she has not presided over a massive state debt that gets bigger by the day), she is right on women’s issues, on choice, more right on Iraq, more right on immigration, and a host of others. I know that no one wants me to go digging into Project Vote Smart again, do they?
April 17th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Hi, Kral,
I just think I’m seeing issue avoidance and I’m not clear as to why it would be too soon to start talking about them. It’s mid-April.
I just looked on Tim Bee’s website and I see only one thing that qualifies as an issue and that was a statement about the Columbia Free Trade Agreement:
“Not only is Columbia crucial economically; it is a key ally in the wars on terrorism and the region’s drug cartels. This agreement affirms American commitment to the growing democracies in Latin America. By voting to reject this agreement, Giffords is voting to penalize a nation that has been a strong friend. In essence, her vote rewards the authoritarian countries like Venezuela and Ecuador that continuously rail against America and her interests abroad.”
A little right wing for me, Kral, as you might imagine.
I think it’s time for policy positions on the websites. I will admit that I didn’t look at Ms. Gifford’s campaign website before writing this. I was more curious to see if Mr. Bee was articulating some positions.
April 18th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Look him up on project vote smart. I think you will be very well informed. While few take the candidate survey (neither of them did), we do get a sense from their voting records and their ratings by key interest groups. He is far more right wing than even the Columbia issue suggests.