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Mfume Trails Top Rivals in Fundraising
Kweisi Mfume chats with former College Park mayor Dervey Lomax and his wife, Thelma, during a campaign event with Prince George's Democrats at Plato's Diner in College Park. Some say the U.S. Senate candidate hasn't been disciplined about fundraising.
(By Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post)
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"It was designed to get me out of the race, and if not, it was designed to cripple me in fundraising and support," he said in an interview last week.
By his own admission, Mfume is not fond of fundraising. Until recently, he did not have what professionals consider a disciplined schedule for working big-ticket events or phoning potential donors. That's changing, he said, with fundraisers planned for Atlanta, Chicago and Charlotte in coming weeks.
If he can make it through the Sept. 12 primary, Mfume expects the national Democratic Party to pump in millions.
But money matters in the primary, too. Cardin has the funds to run television ads to introduce himself and his policies in the expensive media market serving Montgomery and Prince George's counties. Without a flush bank account, it's "virtually impossible to get up on TV in any meaningful way," said Jim Jordan, former executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
A week of advertising in the Washington area costs more than $400,000, meaning Mfume would have little chance to change the impression left by last year's news accounts.
"TV is still, and will be for the foreseeable future, the most important advertising medium in politics," Jordan said.
Even without much cash on hand, Mfume was within eight percentage points of Cardin, according to a statewide poll last month. The Gonzales Research and Marketing Strategies poll had both Democrats ahead of Steele in a general election matchup.
Support for other Democratic contenders was in the single digits, the poll showed. But at least one candidate, American University professor Allan Lichtman, has already aired ads on cable television. Another, Montgomery County businessman Josh Rales, has vowed to spend millions of his own money to promote his candidacy.
Mfume acknowledged that it will take money to win the race, especially in the seven weeks between the primary and general elections. Former New York City mayor David Dinkins hosted a fundraiser for him in March, and NBA Commissioner David Stern and Washington power broker Vernon Jordan are among his contributors.
Political observers had expected Mfume's leading role at the NAACP, which he ran for nine years, to yield a wealth of connections.
"I'm surprised he hasn't raised more money. I'm at a loss to explain why this is happening," said Julian Bond, the NAACP board chairman who has at times been at odds with Mfume. "He's a more than credible candidate, and it may be that Cardin has created some kind of inevitability about his nomination."
Hazel Dukes, an NAACP board member who has contributed to Mfume's campaign, said the candidate's fundraising woes are not a reflection of a strained relationship with the group. "That's over with. That's not even an issue," she said. She suggested, rather, that money is tight because of contests in other states involving black Democrats.
