Pat Dollard | Young Americans

McCain Gets $7 Million Bounce from Palin Pick

By Matthew Mosk - (WaPo)

Sen. John McCain has taken in $7 million in contributions since announcing Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, a top campaign aide said today.

The money bounce may owe to Palin’s appeal with conservative donors, many of whom said privately they had planned on sitting out the campaign this year. The money comes in just under the wire — after McCain accepts the GOP nomination Thursday, he will accept public funds and no longer be permitted to raise private money for the campaign.

That will not, however, stop McCain and Palin from raising money for the Republican National Committee. In coming weeks, McCain will host four megafundraising events in major cities aimed at bolstering the accounts of the party. Palin, meanwhile, will be sent out to headline more than a dozen fundraising events for the RNC.

Shortly before Palin’s announcement, one senior RNC official said McCain’s pick “better like doing fundraising.”

Like almost everything else she does, hosting these events will be something of a new experience for Palin. When running for governor of Alaska in 2006, Palin raised a total of just $468,400.

Incidentally, Bill Burton, a spokesman for Sen. Barack Obama, declined to reveal how much money the Democratic nominee took in after his speech to 84,000 supporters in Denver and 38 million television viewers.

Me here: Heh … Heh-Heh-Heh … Heh!

Palin Power

By Jonathan Martin - (Politico)

My mention below of just how juiced many in the grass roots of the GOP are about Palin has only brought forth more stories and anecdotes of what this pick means.

Here is one from an Ohio source I know to be reliable:

Speaking about GOP grass roots on fire, here in Cuyahoga County we have four victory centers, and in mine alone in the all-important city of Parma, I had 47 calls between 12:30 and 2 p.m. yesterday, all asking how they could volunteer and how they could get a yard sign, a ton of independent women
The RNC, clearly hoping to push this angle, has also sent over an internal memo from Political Director Rich Beeson with their own examples. This one, from Waukesah County, Wisc., stands out. The rest are after the jump:

Today in Waukesha we had a woman come in who was volunteering for the first time. She told me that she heard that Sarah Palin was McCain’s choice for VP, and that she could immediately relate to her. Like Gov. Palin, our volunteer is also a mother of five, and is also a “hockey mom.” She told me that she was sitting at her table (which she said also serves as her office), and that she realized that Gov. Palin’s urging others to “get involved” was meant for her. She told me that she heard that and immediately drove to our headquarters. She stayed for over two hours making phone calls, and said that she will be back every week from now until Election Day.

» Continue reading Palin Power

MEMORANDUM

TO: Rich Beeson, Political Director

FROM: Tim Phelps

DATE: Friday, August 29, 2008

RE: Examples Of Volunteer Response To The Palin Announcement

_____________________________________________________________________________

Today, Senator McCain made history by naming Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be the Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States.

Since this announcement – enthusiastic voters across the country have been flooding our victory offices to find out how they can help elect John McCain and Sarah Palin in November.

In what seems to be evidence of McCain and Palin’s appeal to Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike, many of them volunteers have come from seemingly unlikely sources – including many Hillary Clinton supporters and many women who have never before felt compelled to become involved in a political campaign.

Though it is early – it seems that McCain’s pick will do much to expand the volunteer base for the Republican Party. Below are specific examples:

From Alleghany County, Pennsylvania:

Phones at the Alleghany County Republican Party Headquarters have been ringing off the hook with female Democrats asking how they can get involved.

From Fredericksburg, Virginia:

Two women contacted me about volunteering because they were extremely excited about Governor Palin being announced as Senator McCain’s running mate. The people who had previously been involved prior to the announcement also seem to be energized by the selection.

From Tallahassee, Florida:

We have seen a significant increase in phone calls and emails to Tallahassee asking to volunteer. Victory offices across the state say that they have also had an increase in walk-in traffic and phone calls. Almost all are women excited about the selection and ready to help.

From South Florida:

The campaign has received calls from Jewish women in South Florida that were Hillary supporters who now want to make volunteer phone calls for us.

From Brevard County, Florida

Several former Hillary supporters came in to our office and asked to volunteer to make calls to Democratic women. In fact, they took a McCain bumper sticker and put it on their car right next to their Hillary sticker.

From Iowa

All of our offices had substantially more traffic with activists coming in to find out how they could help – and where they could get their McCain/Palin signs.

From Washington County, Oregon

A Beaverton couple just came into our office who returned from attending the convention in Denver today. They are both lifelong Democrats and Hillary supporters/volunteers who are now strongly supporting John McCain. They LOVE the VP pick Sarah Palin and offered to join any coalition that would be help

From Northern Virginia

A woman with two kids showed up right after the announcement cheering and saying it brought tears to her eyes to hear that Sarah Palin was announced as McCain’s running mate.

From Richmond, Virginia

A woman called up from Chesterfield who was a Hillary supporter and identified herself as a registered Democrat. She now supports McCain and was very energized by his picking Palin. She wants to win this thing badly and wanted to know how she could get involved in outreach to minority communities in the region to the get the word out that McCain-Palin is THE only way ahead for America and that electing Obama would be a huge mistake.

From Waukesha County, Wisconsin

Today in Waukesha we had a woman come in who was volunteering for the first time. She told me that she heard that Sarah Palin was McCain’s choice for VP, and that she could immediately relate to her. Like Gov. Palin, our volunteer is also a mother of five, and is also a “hockey mom.” She told me that she was sitting at her table (which she said also serves as her office), and that she realized that Gov. Palin’s urging others to “get involved” was meant for her. She told me that she heard that and immediately drove to our headquarters. She stayed for over two hours making phone calls, and said that she will be back every week from now until Election Day.

From Kenosha County, Wisconsin

Emails and phone calls requesting “gear” have increased significantly today. Volunteers and the general public have been seeking out McCain/Palin yard signs and bumper stickers like they were Hannah Montana tickets. This has provided us a good opportunity to reach put to these individuals and get them involved, invested, and active. All responses to the VP pick have been positive. Gov. Palin’s speech this morning really resonated with people, and they are excited to learn more about her in the coming weeks.”

From North Carolina

A very nice lady called, requested a Democrat for McCain sticker, and told me she had been undecided but was going to vote for McCain now. That echoes the sentiment I have heard all day. I haven’t had a single person complain about the choice. The sheer volume of calls and walk-ins (mostly women) nearly doubled today.

Me here … again: First, see above “Hehs” in the first break and repeat.

I thought for a minute about helping campaign in my area, but felt I would do better NOT cutting into my patdollard.com blogging time, as I feel I do a better service right where I am.