Fundraising bonanza not changing Paul's shoestring campaign style

Jason Rhyne
Raw Story
Tuesday November 13, 2007

With a surging online fundraising operation that netted a record $4 million in a single day, GOP presidential contender Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) now has the monetary muscle to make some substantial upgrades to his tiny campaign organization -- but he doesn't plan to tinker with a successful formula, a DC newspaper reports.

Paul, whose Libertarian-leaning positions and outspoken criticisms of the war in Iraq have ignited a firestorm of support on the internet, maintains a "shoestring grass-roots political operation," reports Roll Call's Lauren W. Whittington. "In fact," she writes, "Paul�s kitchen cabinet of advisers is virtually bare. The way the Libertarian sees it, he wouldn�t have it any other way."

According to Whittington, Paul relies on only two advisers, campaign chairman Kent Snyder and campaign manager Lew Moore, to steer his campaign. "They�re basically the two I depend on," Paul told Roll Call, adding that he employed approximately just 50 staffers.

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Snyder first linked up with Paul as a college student, when he volunteered for the congressman's 1988 presidential bid on the Libertarian ticket. Moore, a more seasoned political veteran, is no stranger to outspoken Republicans: he was a former aide to former Rep. Jack Metcalf (R-WA) -- a firm believer that the Federal Reserve is illegal -- and volunteered for Sen. Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign when he was only nine years old.

Otherwise, Paul tends to eschew professional strategists. "No, we don't have any consultants," the congressman told the paper. And other hired guns on the Paul campaign are few.

"He has one media consultant, Jay Bryant, whom he calls in on an as-needed basis," continues Roll Call. "Bryant and video production director Bill Dumas produced Paul�s New Hampshire campaign ads." Dumas is now on the campaign trail with Paul, putting together YouTube videos for the congressman. Paul's deputy campaign manager is Joe Seehusen, a radio host and director of an executive research firm.

But Paul's dependence on old friends and relative political outsiders hasn't done him any favors in picking up endorsements from others on Capitol Hill.

"Paul relies on just a few aides, and so far the legendary loner hasn't drawn any support from his fellow Members," writes Whittington. "Of the nine House and Senate Members running for president in 2008, Paul is one of three who have not garnered any endorsements from their Hill colleagues. Reps. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) are the other."

Read the full story in Roll Call (subscription only).

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