Women Exceeding Goals at Key Fundraising Deadline

Women are helping Coakley to blow past her fundraising goals.  Shanti Fry, one of three co-chairs of today’s women’s fundraising lunch (not affiliated with this blog) said that the event’s original goal had been to raise $75 thousand, but that contributions actually had exceeded $150 thousand.  A luncheon attendee later told me that Emily’s list founder Ellen Malcolm’s speech had gotten her so excited that she had been waving her napkin in the air and was rushing home to make phone calls asking friends to contribute.

The push is on today, because tonight is the FEC reporting deadline by which the campaign has said it hopes to raise $1 million.  If the results of today’s luncheon are representative of fundraising overall, the campaign may soon announce some big numbers.

Malcolm pointed out that those of us not in the big-ticket-fundraiser circle are important, too.  In a post-luncheon interview, she said

This race is a great example of why small donors can make a big difference in politics, because you’ve got one candidate heres that’s worth $400 million dollars and can write Lord-knows-what-size check. You’ve got another candidate who is a member of Congress and for years went to all these lobbyist cocktail parties and got money from the special interest PACs. And you’ve got Martha, who is really tapping into a network of people [who say,] ”I’m going to send 25 bucks, I’m going to send 50, I’m going to send 100.”  And at the end of the day, all of those little contributions are what offsets the special interest money.

One of the things that I’ve been thrilled about today is the energy level to help her in this race. I think we’re going to see in this next filing, and I think we’re going to see as this campaign goes on, a lot of small donors… And it’s exciting; it’s energizing.

As to why small donors are behind Coakley, Malcom told the press

They see a fighter who understands their lives.