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Posted: August 2, 2007 1:40 PM
Fred Thompson's Fund Raising Lower Than Expected
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Fred Thompson’s testing-the-waters committee reported $3.4 million was raised in June, instead of the $5 million it expected.

Thompson spokeswoman Linda Rozett told the New York Times that the money had to be put in context, because fund raising as an undeclared candidate could not be compared to a declared candidate who had more time to establish an operation.

The organizers for the former Tennessee Republican senator’s anticipated presidential bid said donors totaled 9,167, and contributions came from every state, with almost half the total from Tennessee.

A copy of the IRS required disclosure form can be found here.

Reuters reported that Thompson is now expected to announce his candidacy in September; he had previously indicated July 4 as the day.

But Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn. urged Thompson to announce in August, rather than waiting for September. “His strategy and the use of noncandidate status has worked very much to his advantage to this point,” Wamp said. “I believe we’re approaching the point at which he needs to be a candidate — I mean full-blown, ‘I am running for president,’ no holds barred.”

As Tony Fabrizio, Republican strategist and pollster, explained to Reuters, “Every day that goes by where you’re not in the race is a lost fund-raising opportunity, a lost recruitment opportunity, a lost definitional opportunity, and your opponents get to continue their strategies unfettered.”

In the GOP field, Thompson is running behind former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and ahead of Sen. John McCain, Ariz., according to an average of recent polls tracked by realclearpolitics.com.

The Associated Press analyzed some of the early stumbles of the Thompson camp and among other things, noted that some of his staffers may quit.

Kim Kaegi, a prominent Tennessee fund raiser who helped Thompson in June, told the Politico she decided not to work for the campaign past that period.