The Schultz Report: Killing her softly with his cash

Amid reports that the Clinton campaign faces a mounting volume of unpaid bills — around $9 million by most accounts — David Schultz says the endgame in the Democratic nomination fight is looking like a question of dollars and cents. “You have a fascinating picture with Obama not just raising incredible amounts of money compared to Clinton, but [it's noteworthy] how he’s raising it compared to Clinton,” he notes. “The vast majority of Obama’s 1.2 million donors are people giving under $200. These are relatively small donors giving over the internet. Clinton’s donors are larger donors. They’re allowed to give her up to $2300 [for the primary race] under federal campaign finance laws. Lots of her donors have maxed out.

“Additionally, a lot of her donors gave her money early. She’s already gone through it. Or they gave her money to be used in the general election, which means she can’t touch it… [Clinton's] assumption was that before Super Tuesday, or on Super Tuesday, she would have knocked all her challengers out and it would have been over. Her idea was, raise money early, get the financial advantage, scare people off, spend heavily — spend perhaps foolishly, as we’re now finding out — and knock everybody out. She never counted on having to do a long-haul strategy like this. Many people argue that’s been one of the fatal flaws of her strategy. She’s never figured out how to adjust, to think in terms of running a campaign that would go the whole season, even though she’s pledged she’s going to take the fight to the convention.”

Below the jump, you’ll find excerpts of Schultz’s comments on the Bonoff/Madia race in the Third District.

The Schultz Report: Obama/Clinton’s war of $$ attrition, the race to replace Ramstad (12:58)

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Continued: Click “Read More”Schultz on Third District Congressional race: “It’s almost a microcosm of the Clinton/Obama race [on the Democratic side]….  Terri Bonoff, who’s a Minnesota state senator, declared early and got a lot of initial support from the Democrats. Lots of state officials endorsed her… It was a top-down type of approach for getting the nomination. And in theory, she looks like the ideal candidate for that district — this is a moderate Republican, moderate Democrat district. She’s a moderate, pro-choice, probably pro-business Democrat.
Fits the district really well. However, people who have watched her in person suggest that she’s not a strong candidate, not good in debates, not really lighting anyone’s fire.

“And then you have this sort of stealth candidate, Ashwin Madia, who’s really quite interesting. Gulf War veteran, served in Iraq, describes himself as having been a McCain supporter in 2000. He’s been running somewhat of an Obama campaign in the sense of doing grassroots organizing and working hard to get the delegates… What looked initially like a cinch for Terri Bonoff — somewhere along the line she’s lost that. Madia’s picked up some very strong support. Best evidence suggests at this point that [Madia] … is very close to having enough delegates or has enough already. So Bonoff’s best strategy now is, like Clinton, to hope it goes the long haul. That no one gets enough votes at the convention and that she can go to a primary to beat him –  in much the way Clinton is hoping to go the [national] convention and pick up superdelegates.”