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Posted: October 5, 2007 1:21 PM
Newcomer Thompson Rings Up $9.3 Million for 3rd Quarter
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After his much-anticipated campaign entry, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson collected $9.3 million from more
than 80,000 supporters in the third quarter. It brings Thompson’s total since he began raising money in early June to $12.7 million and leaves him with $7 million cash on hand.

“The financial support Sen. Thompson has received from more than 80,000 donors demonstrates his huge grassroots appeal for Republicans who’ve been waiting for an authentic conservative to enter the race for president,” said campaign manager Bill Lacy in a press release this week.

But even with all the hype surrounding his candidacy, his fundraising still puts him behind his top GOP rivals - former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has $11 million and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has $9 million cash on hand.

Thompson still has time to catch up, however. “If the early primaries and caucuses don’t decide the Republican presidential nomination, former Sen. Fred Thompson may enjoy an edge in any drawn-out delegate slugfest due to his Sun Belt roots and ‘red state’ strength,” Peter A. Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, wrote this week in the Politico.

The Politico described Thompson’s ‘down-home folksiness’ style of campaigning in an article that pointed out some generalizations and oversimplifications the candidate has been making such as “Let’s keep doing what works and quit doing what doesn’t work” and “We pay a little more for fruit or whatever (The economic impact of halting illegal immigration.)” The article also related Fred Thompson’s strategy to the style of Ronald Reagan, who tried to make a connection with voters by appealing to the emotions and the heart rather than logic and facts.

However, Thompson hasn’t charmed every crowd he’s encountered. He faced a tough time in Nevada, Iowa where he was met by silence after speaking for twenty-four minutes in a small restaurant, The New York Times reported.
“Can I have a round of applause?” he asked, “drawing a rustle of clapping and some laughter.” To which he followed up, “Well, I had to drag that out of you.”

In another press release from his campaign, Thompson issued the following statement on Wednesday about Rush Limbaugh: “Congressional Democrats are trying to divert attention from insulting our military leader in Iraq and pandering to the loony left by attacking Rush Limbaugh. He is one of the strongest supporters of our troops, yet Democrats claim he is not being strong enough. I wonder who General Petraeus and his troops think is most supportive.”

Thompson’s wife, Jeri, told People magazine, ”It’s hard not to be defensive,” referring to some of the negative references that have been made about her. ”To think back on how hard you’ve worked, and all anybody thinks about is that you’re a trophy wife.”:http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Jeri-Thompson.html

This week, Thompson will deliver remarks at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. on Friday at the Americans for Prosperity Foundation Summit. He will also participate in his first Republican debate next Tuesday in Dearborn, Mich. “I’ll have to do a few things to get ready for that, that’s for sure,” he told the Politico. “I am probably a little rusty on my sound-bite delivery. Unfortunately, that is kind of what it boils down to. But hopefully I will be able to hang with them.”