Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

Romney's small donor decline

Dave Levinthal
9/20/12 6:25 PM EDT

Mitt Romney has a grassroots donor problem.

Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan as his vice presidential candidate was expected to energize small donors, who typically fork over modest amounts of money such as $5, $25 or $100.

But the cash Romney raised from small-dollar contributors went the wrong direction in August, as his campaign committee reported $9.4 million in “unitemized” donations – those $200 or less that don’t require disclosure of identifying information.

That’s a notable drop from July, when the campaign raised nearly $11.8 million in such donations, according to federal records the campaign released Thursday.

It’s impossible to precisely tell how many fewer low-level donors the month-over-month donation gap represents. But such a slide could easily translate into hundreds, if not thousands of fewer small-dollar contributors at a time when the Romney campaign is desperate to energize its base and rally workaday voters behind it.



http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81476.html#ixzz273kiS1Ue