November 22, 2005

When Will Warner Establish His Exploratory Cmte?

To get a head start raising hard dollars that he could use to seed a presidential campaign, Howard Dean opened his exploratory account in May of 2002, the earliest of any of the major Dem '04 contenders.

Judging by how public his play has been, here's betting that VA Gov. Mark Warner opens his account very early, too. An early exploratory account demonstrates a serious commitment to the race in the eyes of activists, fundraisers and donors who might otherwise be awed by the Clinton machine. (Warner can't transfer money he raises from his PAC into a federal campaign account.)

Forward Together PAC's senior adviser Mame Reiley sent an e-mail to PAC supporters this afternoon touting the "terrific" response to Warner "everywhere we went" as "folks up north got their first chance to hear the Governor share the approach that has proven so popular in Virginia."

She then quotes a blogger who touted Warner's presidential dimensions:

"Warner is exciting for many reasons, but particularly because he has an 80% approval rating, a recognized status as one of the best managing state governers [sic] in America, and a consistent track record of defeating Republicans in one of the more Red states, Virginia... Warner also has some other attractive qualities, such as a great presence... a desire to run America well and reasonably, and the rare talent of honest inspiration."

Even Warner's own blogger, MyDD's famous Jerome Armstrong, doesn't seem to have read the script for potential presidential hopefuls, who are fond of demurrals and shrugs of shoulders when talking about their presidential aspirations. Armstrong describers Warner's recent speech in New Hampshire thusly: "One one staffer from a former `04 campaign remarked to me, 'I came in here just looking" and that he was blown away, saying afterward, 'he's our guy.'"

We'll take bets on precisely when Warner will open his exploratory account. May of 2006, anyone?
[MARC AMBINDER]

Posted at 02:03 PM

Comments

blog blog bloggity mark warner blog blog blogalicious...

A quick look at vpap shows that warner's got enough pac giveaway money (approx. $1mil) in his One Virginia account to be competitive with the biggest PAC funds of any of the other '08ers.

So, yeah, sure I think you're right that any money Warner raises into Forward Together is just for temporary show, and for soon transfer into a presidential account. I'm guessing July '06, just so that he can delay reporting the exploratory committee's fundraising numbers by another quarter.

Everyone's pegging their strategy to Hillary, and my bet is that Warner's no exception. He realizes that he's going to have to be capabale of a $7M-$10M Q1 '07 in order to be competitive with Hillary's likely $20M Q1 '07. Plus, Warner's going to need to start moving the polls by the end of '06 (in IA at least) to start denying opportunity to serious competition (like Bayh and Edwards) for the prime Hillary challenger position.

bow_down | 11.22.05 03:24 PM

Can someone explain how this works - does his Forward Together PAC give money to his presidential campaign committee once it starts up?

Joanna | 11.22.05 06:16 PM

Post a comment