KEY TAKEAWAY: "The pair said Strickland needed to raise $2 million in the first three months of 2015 and $2.5 million in the second quarter, targets that would help Strickland raise $20 million by the 2016 election. But Strickland, starting out late on fund-raising, raised only $671,073 in the first quarter. He has not yet released his second-quarter numbers …"
- Meanwhile, The Columbus Dispatch’s Jessica Wehrman Just Tweeted: .@TedStrickland raised a little more than $1 million last quarter; has $1.2 million in bank.
Ted Strickland is far behind in the fund-raising goals advisers proposed
Northeast Ohio Media Group
Stephen Koff
July 8, 2015
In late 2014, the man who is now Ted Strickland’s deputy campaign manager laid out fundraising goals for Strickland’s U.S. Senate race. By those yardsticks, Strickland, a former Ohio governor, is running woefully behind as he tries to win the 2016 election.
That doesn’t mean Strickland, a Democrat, cannot raise the recommended $20 million by November 2016 in his hope of ousting incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman. And Strickland leads Portman in recent polls of Ohio voters.
But Strickland is already far behind Portman, a prodigious fund-raiser, in the money department. And he lags the recommendations presented in a November 2014 memo from Justin Brennan, now Strickland’s deputy campaign manager, and Erik Greathouse, a longtime Strickland political adviser and fundraiser.
The two made their recommendations in a 10-page memo that encouraged Strickland to run for the Senate and presented "mission-critical projects" they said were necessary to build a campaign. These included fund-raising projections that Strickland has already missed, and may continue to.
Brennan and Greathouse were not working officially for Strickland at the time. Greathouse, however, helped raise money for Strickland after he announced his candidacy in February, and has been a top fundraising and political adviser to Strickland in prior Ohio campaigns. He is a former finance director for the Ohio Democratic Party.
Strickland recently hired Brennan as his deputy campaign manager when Brennan left his job as finance director for Priorities USA, a super PAC supporting Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. …
The memo included a paragraph advising that Strickland ask U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, to pledge to raise $500,000 for Strickland in New York City. Schumer would want Strickland to run, the memo said, partly because defeating Portman and electing another Democrat would help Schumer’s goal of becoming the next Senate majority leader.
Schumer "will know that by supporting you early, he will be more likely to lock-in your vote for his elevation" to Senate leader, the memo said. …
The pair said Strickland needed to raise $2 million in the first three months of 2015 and $2.5 million in the second quarter, targets that would help Strickland raise $20 million by the 2016 election.
But Strickland, starting out late on fund-raising, raised only $671,073 in the first quarter. He has not yet released his second-quarter numbers, which do not have to be filed publicly until July 15, but they are almost certain to fall short of his advisers’ goals.