WELL, HE'S FROM A DAIRY STATE

Dean's Grass-Roots Cash Cow (E. J. Dionne Jr., July 8, 2003, The Washington Post)

Dean's astonishing success at pulling in such a large haul of online contributions so early in the campaign is revolutionary. It gives Democrats an alternative to their addiction to raising big money from rich people and rich interests. Most of that fundraising will be against the law if the Supreme Court upholds the Campaign Reform Act passed last year. So the Dems had better figure out something.

In the old soft money system, the most efficient way to raise $100 million was through a small number of very rich people. One hundred people giving $100,000 each quickly gets you to $10 million.

But Joe Trippi, Dean's campaign manager and an evangelist for the gospel of online politics, describes the alternative: You can raise $100 million if a million people contribute an average of $100 each. If Democrats can't find a few million people willing to part with a couple of bucks a week, they're in trouble.

Dean shocked the political world by raising more money -- roughly $7.5 million -- in the last quarter than any of his more established opponents, and, according to his campaign, he raised nearly half of that in the eight days before the June 30 filing period ended, largely through online contributions. In one day, noted Trippi, Dean took in $800,000 online. Dean's figures show that 80 percent of his first-time donors gave less than $250; 60 percent gave less than $100.

One wonders if these are on-line pledges or actual credit card transactions? Posted by Orrin Judd at July 8, 2003 10:29 PM