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GOP Hit Funding Bump On Path To Minnesota

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Los Angeles Times

Published: August 11, 2008

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Republican Party officials have developed a well-deserved reputation for planning ever more extravagant national conventions, each built on the party's ability to secure abundant cash.

But just six weeks before the convention - at which Sen. John McCain of Arizona is to accept his party's nomination - executives found they were about $10 million short of what they needed for a celebration they had already scaled back.

Officials say that they have since secured most of the funds and that meeting budget needs was never in doubt. Still, this previously unknown - and rather unusual - last minute GOP fundraising headache underscores the challenges facing both parties: A souring economy, complex campaign finance rules and the candidates' talk of reform have discouraged participation by corporations and the lobbyists who advocate for them.

"It's a challenge for midsize cities to raise this kind of money for conventions like these," said Jeff Larson, a GOP political consultant who chairs the Twin Cities' convention host committee.

Larson stresses that all of the Minnesota host committee's obligations and deadlines have been met and that fundraising overall is now in good shape.

To make up the last $10 million, Larson and the rest of the Twin Cities host committee relied in part on a wealthy out-of-town GOP donor: Robert Wood "Woody" Johnson IV, owner of the New York Jets and heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune.
Host committees do not have to disclose their donors until well after the convention. But party insiders are crediting him with helping to close the gap to within just a few million dollars of the $56.9 million in cash needed to fund the convention that begins Sept. 1.

Sources familiar with Republican convention financing said a problem of this scale hasn't hit the GOP since 1996. Back then, convention planners in San Diego scrambled to raise $3 million to $5 million in the six weeks before former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole received the nomination.

Larson, the Twin Cities host committee chair, acknowledges that fundraising has been difficult but says the committee has met all of its fundraising obligations and targets.

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