Perry Burned Through A Ton Of Cash
By the time he dropped out of the Presidential race two weeks ago, Rick Perry had apparently spent nearly all the money he’d raised:
Texas Gov. Rick Perry burned through the bulk of a once-sizable campaign war chest late last year in what became an increasingly desperate attempt to right his listing — and ultimately doomed — presidential campaign, federal financial disclosures released late Monday show.
Though he raised more than $20 million overall during 2011, Perry raised less than $2.9 million of that amount between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, federal records indicate, as disastrous debate performances and plummeting poll numbers crippled his fundraising efforts.
Perry’s campaign had more than $15 million cash on hand in early October. By the year’s end, that dwindled to less than $3.77 million.
This alone should qualify the Rick Perry for President campaign as one of the biggest flops in modern political history.
Fiscal Conservative!
Look on the bright side. It was fiscally stimulative.
Seriously, there’s a great three-part article in the story of the Perry campaign and I hope we don’t have to wait until after the election to read it. Think he’ll have any place at the Republican Convention?
Why wouldn’t that be the reasonable course? In fact, if he ended cash-positive he spent too little.
On two levels:
– first, early spending is pump-priming, for popularity and later donations
– second, ending with cash is a little like running for profit, ripping off donors
(I have been a cynic, and expected that there are still ways to convert donations to private monies. Many of those doors are closed now, but I would be suspicious of anyone who ended too cash positive.)
As I recall, John Kerry returned quite a bit cash left over from his 2004 run.
Suffice it to say, he didn’t win many plaudits for that one.