Spring brings fundraising frenzy for GOP hopefuls

[TomCADem]

Source: Associated Press

NEW YORK — Mitt Romney is organizing a phone bank fundraiser in Las Vegas next month. Tim Pawlenty is holding regular "friendraising" meetings in big-money California and elsewhere. Haley Barbour hunkers down soon with finance operatives in cash-rich New York and other lucrative places.

Republican presidential hopefuls are in the midst of a fundraising frenzy as they seek to raise mounds of campaign cash and assemble influential donor networks. With the 2012 campaign starting several months later than it did four years ago, the contenders are under intense pressure to demonstrate their ability to bring in the dough before the slower summer season begins.

"Money is hardly the only indication of a candidate's potential, but it's an important indication," said Lew Eisenberg, a top Romney fundraiser who was finance chairman for Arizona Sen. John McCain, the party's 2008 nominee.

For now, the field is eschewing wall-to-wall public appearances with campaign speeches and interaction with voters. Instead, they're scurrying between private meetings and dialing phone lists to persuade donors to come aboard in hopes of meeting closely kept fundraising goals for the three-month period that ends June 30.


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42738089/ns/politics-decision_2012/

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With Republican proposals to eliminate Medicare and lower taxes to the wealthy even further, no wonder money is flowing to Republican candidates.