Rick Perry campaign staffers woke up this morning to read that they had raised a lot more money than they actually have.
Tuesday morning news outlets hopped on a Dallas Morning News report that Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s online fundraising is going unexpectedly well and that the campaign raised $20 million in just three days during his initial fundraisers.
According to Perry spokesman Mark Miner, the $20 million figure is false, likely given to the the paper by “people who think they know what’s going [on], but don’t.”
The $20 million figure would have been a boost to Perry’s campaign optics, which has hit some bumps in recent weeks, most recently through the media’s analysis of his Fox/Google debate performance. But the numbers are off: Campaign spokesman Ray Sullivan told TheDC that the figure for the entire third quarter will not be “anywhere near” the $20 million reported.
“Obviously we hope to do well and be competitive but we are working with literally half the time frame the rest of the candidates are working with,” Sullivan said, noting that Perry only just announced in August. “The figure reported by the Dallas Morning News is just nuts.”
Sullivan noted that most of what was in the report was incorrect, but was mum on how online fundraising has been going.
“Across the board we hope to do well, recognizing that we are hamstrung by only being a candidate for half the quarter,” he said. “I don’t know anything specific about our online efforts.”
The third quarter fundraising period ends on Friday.
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