Somehow, someone at CTLP got access to a hilarious "internal" Simmons campaign memo trying to spin his disastrous second quarter fundraising total: he only raised $750k despite being able to raise money full-time for 91 days, for a candidate who had hoped to raise over $1 million this quarter in order to be competitive. This, compared to Bush Pioneer Tom Foley who raised money at more than twice Simmons' rate in the mere 26 days he's been in the race.
If you want to know how worried the Simmons camp is about Foley, look past the silly bravado of the campaign "memo" and note that he also used it as an opportunity to attack the Ambassador from Greenwich for his ties to George W. Bush:
We learned yesterday that Ambassador Foley raised about $530,000 this quarter, a significant amount, though less than we anticipated given his background. That you outraised a professional political fundraiser and well-connected Wall Street executive whose money-raising proficiency on behalf of President George W. Bush earned him a plum ambassadorship by 42 percent is impressive.
Simmons' usual campaign M.O. is to launch negative attack after attack from the very beginning, and it appears from this opening salvo that this tightly contested Republican primary will be no different for a self-declared "frontrunner" who is acting like anything but one.
Update: CTLP seems to be down. Here's Roll Call on Simmons' numbers, I guess they also got the internal memo:
Former Rep. Rob Simmons (R-Conn.) has raised more than $753,000 since March for his Senate campaign, according to a fundraising memo obtained by Roll Call.
Simmons is in a three-way primary for the GOP nomination to challenge Sen. Chris Dodd (D). Senate Republicans have indicated they are inclined to support Simmons, who has led Dodd in several polls testing the 2010 race.
The Simmons campaign takes aim in the memo at one of their GOP opponents, former Ambassador to Ireland Tom Foley, who announced Tuesday that he raised more than $530,000 in one month for his bid. Simmons campaign manager Jim Barnett wrote in the memo that Foley's total was "less than we anticipated given his background as" a "professional political fundraiser and well-connected Wall Street Executive."
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