Courtesy of Michael Shear's Richmond Report, Harris Miller raised $539,000 in the first quarter of 2006. Jim Webb raised $260,000. Apparently, Miller's money includes the $1 he matched for every $2 he raised, so actually it's a lot less impressive than it appears. Also, I'm hearing that Miller had only about 600 total donors, compared to about 1,000 donors for Webb. In other words, Miller's support - and we'll get more details on this later this week - came from far fewer donors than Webb, and a lot of the money came from his own self-funding.
Finally, keep in mind that Miller announced his candidacy on January 9, 2006 and had been planning it for far longer. Jim Webb didn't decide for sure he would run until early February 2006, with his announcement coming on March 7. The quarter ended March 31; obviously, this did not leave much time for Webb to do serious fundraising.
Most importantly, Mark Warner held a fundraiser for Harris Miller in the first quarter, per his promise prior to Webb entering the race. Now, according to Shear's article, Warner appears likely to do one for Webb as well:
[Webb campaign spokeswoman Kristian Denny] Todd noted that Miller has already held a fundraiser with former governor Mark Warner. She said that Warner has indicated he will hold one for Webb, too. And she said there are fundraisers planned with AOL founder James Kimsey and former U.S. senator Bob Kerrey.
In other words, Webb's got some major fundraisers coming up, which should more than enable him to catch up with Miller in terms of cash. Given that money is Miller's only possible advantage over Webb, this is very good news for Webb. In the meantime, let Harris Miller talk about how how he "beat" Jim Webb in terms of first quarter fundraising. Enjoy it while you can, I guess, cuz you can't take it with you! Ha.
[UPDATE: Not Larry Sabato is reporting that $175,000 of the $540,000 Miller raised was from his own pocket. In other words, Miller only raised $365,000 from other people in 3 months. Wow.]
Here's the part that interests me:
Harris Miller's Average Donor: between $900-$1,000
Jim Webb's Average Donor: between $200-$300
Do the math, dividing money recieved by total donaters. As you can see, the Average Miller donor gave quite a bit. Webb's money, on the other hand, came truly from grassroots movements. People who are willing to donate a lot of money, but not a ton. You'll also notice that Webb came pretty close to his ridiculous $300,000 goal.
Who did better? I'm honestly going with Webb, seeing as he was only seriously fundraising for a month, and Miller has been fundraising for three. Also, Miller had a Warner fundraiser. If Webb can really work the Warner, AOL, and Kerrey fundraisers, this could spell touble for Miller.
Again, it all comes down to if Miller can raise enough smear money. Webb just needs enough to get his message out.
Miller will have much more money than Webb throughout this primary. The question is will he have enough to smear him?
I'm just hoping Webb ends up raising enough against Allen's cache.
Miller has few if any hard core volunteers. If you value my time conservatively at $10, then I donated the equiv. of $180 (18 hours) over the weekend of March 25-27th alone. I estimate that volunteers working with me that weekend put in another 100-120 hours for another $1,000 to $1,200 in value.
I have no idea what Miller pays his Richmond staffers or his canvassers, but Webb did not have to spend a nickel on either in Richmond to get his petitions done. I'm sure much the same can be said for most of the rest of the state.
Miller had four staffers with him at last night's Henrico County Democratic Committee meeting, so the man pretty clearly loves having an entourage. That can add up when you are paying everyone.
No, I'm quite happy with Jim's numbers.
Jim Webb's positive and progressive view for Virginia
or
Harris Miller's desperate attempt to discredit Jim Webb.
See you there!