[Update, 2/2/00, 1:50 p.m.: Now the total McCain has raised online since yesterday is $330,000.]
[Update, 2/2/00, 2:30 p.m.: Now it’s $352,000.]
[Update, 2/2/00, 5 p.m.: Now it’s $415,000.]
If you’re having trouble logging on to John McCain’s Web site today, that’s because it’s being inundated with hits in the aftermath of his New Hampshire victory. McCain Internet manager Max Fose told Chatterbox at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday that “since John McCain won in New Hampshire we have raised $284,960 online.” That brings McCain to a total of about $1.81 million in cash on hand (up from $1.53 million yesterday), and of course that doesn’t include whatever McCain’s managed to raise today offline. Judging from an article about McCain’s Internet fund raising by Glenn Simpson in today’s Wall Street Journal, the $284,960 figure is more than twice what Bush has been raising daily from all sources, though Bush has a lot more cash on hand ($32.7 million, to be precise). It’s also about 28 times what McCain was raising daily online before the New Hampshire primary.
According to a Republican fund-raising consultant quoted in the Journal, historically a candidate has needed two or three months to cash in on a New Hampshire victory. The Internet seems to have shortened that cycle.
McCain’s Internet gold rush further convinces Chatterbox that e-commerce is sufficiently hearty to withstand taxation–contrary to McCain’s view, which Chatterbox previously criticized in this column and, more recently, in Slate’s “Net Election” column. Though of course, Chatterbox isn’t suggesting that political contributions be taxed.
