With summer campaign season heating up, and the quarter set to end this weekend, Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Tom Smith is set to make a ‘substantial’ monetary contribution toward his campaign.
“We continue to have great fundraising success and Tom is prepared to make another substantial contribution to the campaign this quarter,” Jim Conroy, Smith’s campaign manager told The Morning Call.
Spending his own personal fortune for a political campaign is nothing new to Smith, as he contributed about $5 million of his own money in the GOP primary. He also has said he aims to raise $20 million in his effort to defeat incumbent Senator Bob Casey, which is not an implausible goal given how much Smith is willing to spend.
“In the very slight case that we can’t raise sufficient [funds], I will say this: That well of money is not near dry yet,” he told Roll Call.
Several Democratic sources ballpark Smith’s net worth in the $60-$70 million range.
In a fundraising email to supporters Wednesday night, Casey’s campaign said the intention and use of this money will be misguided.
“You better believe that money will go directly toward funding a barrage of false attacks against Bob Casey,” wrote Mike Butler, finance director for the Casey campaign, “After all, Smith not only donated to the slanderous ‘Swiftboat Veterans for Truth’ ad campaign in 2004 – he bragged that he has ‘been fighting that way for years.’”
While Smith has yet to announce how much money he will drop this week, based on recent poll numbers showing Smith lagging Casey by wide margins, it’s not too soon for him to begin making serious moves.
4 Responses
Typical. It doesn’t matter if a candidate is honest or knowledgeable. As long as he can buy his way in that’s all that counts.
He’s working at getting caught up in the polls and Casey is STILL doing nothing at his job. He is certainly NOT his father; nothing like him.
Lending himself money…18 point lead in the latest Q poll…yeah, Casey must be shaking in his boots.
Well, it’s not like the mainstream media is going to spend two dimes outing Casey’s loopy, out-of-touch Big Government voting record.