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Ohio News |
Article published Saturday, June 15, 2002
Hagan falls behind Taft in quest for campaign
cash
By JAMES DREW
BLADE COLUMBUS
BUREAU CHIEF
COLUMBUS - Since jumping into the governor’s
race in October, Democrat Tim Hagan has been battling more than
Republican incumbent Bob Taft.
He’s been fighting the
perception that if he can’t raise enough money to get his message on
TV ads this fall, he has little hope of winning.
Yesterday,
the mountain became steeper for Mr. Hagan’s campaign.
Reports
filed show that Mr. Hagan raised $154,748 from April 18 to June 7 -
and has a balance of $198,152.
Mr. Taft disclosed that his
campaign raised $2 million in the same period - and has a balance of
$7.7 million.
"People don’t give money to people unless they
believe they are a winner," said Catherine Turcer, campaign reform
director of Ohio Citizen Action, a statewide consumer and
environmental group. "Tim Hagan is such an underdog - $7.7 million
is going to roll right over him. And when there isn’t a true race,
everybody loses because we need a debate over the condition of this
state."
At this time four years ago - when the governor’s
seat was open because Republican George Voinovich couldn’t run for
re-election - Mr. Taft’s campaign had a balance of $6.1
million.
Democrat Lee Fisher’s campaign had a balance of $3.5
million - a gap far narrower than the one Mr. Hagan, a former
Cuyahoga County commissioner, has to close.
But Mr. Hagan
yesterday said he remains confident he’ll collect the money that his
campaign needs.
"I find myself in the position in the next
five months to try to raise a couple of million dollars to be at
least viable. I’ll never match [Mr. Taft] dollar for dollar. He gets
all the money he wants to defend the indefensible," Mr. Hagan
said.
He said his wife, actress Kate Mulgrew, is hosting a
fund-raiser today in Los Angeles. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the
Connecticut Democrat who may run for President in 2006, is set to
hold a fund-raiser June 24 in Columbus, and former talk-show host
Rosie O’Donnell has scheduled a July 25 fund-raiser for Mr. Hagan’s
campaign in New York City.
And on Aug. 24 in Cleveland, Ms.
Mulgrew, who played Captain Kathyrn Janeway on the television series
Star Trek Voyager, is hosting a fund-raiser that will feature
the entire Voyager cast and an appearance by William Shatner,
star of the original Star Trek series. Ms. Mulgrew also will
be auctioning off her Voyager costume "including the
boots."
In a recent campaign visit to Cincinnati, Mr. Hagan
gave a "riproaring speech" that attacked Mr. Taft’s record on
education and state finances and highlighted the governor’s "lack of
leadership," said Tim Burke, chairman of the Hamilton County
Democratic Party.
But to get that message out this fall, Mr.
Hagan must raise more campaign dollars, he said.
"He has to
do what the good fund-raisers do; get on the phone and start calling
folks, getting to Democrats who are in a position to write the
decent-size checks and doing the grassroots fund-raising with people
who can give $25 to $50," Mr. Burke said. "I remember watching Lee
Fisher. He would operate two cell phones in the car between events.
There was someone driving and he was raising the money."
The
Taft campaign issued a statement saying the $7.7 million balance
"shows that Governor Taft’s supporters have faith in his ability to
lead the state now, and through 2006."
Of the $2.01 million
Mr. Taft raised from April 18 to June 7, about $1.85 million was
raised in a May 10 fund-raiser hosted by President Bush in
Columbus.
Mr. Bush posed for 75 photographs with donors who
raised at least $25,000 each.
Among the co-chairs for that
event was Tom Noe, a Toledo-area businessman and a member of the
Ohio Board of Regents. "Everybody knows that Bob Taft is a good
governor and everybody knows that he’s the right person to be
betting on," Mr. Noe said. "[Mr. Hagan’s] not the best candidate
that the Democrats could have fielded."
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