Paul's Maverick Campaign Smashes Fundraising Records

WASHINGTON — Ron Paul, the presidential candidate who was shunned by the pundits, is suddenly shattering the fundraising records.

Aided by a nearly all-volunteer army of energized supporters, the Texas congressman with his shrink-the-government, anti-war message is predicting he will take in $12 million in the last quarter of 2007, making him the top Republican fundraiser for the period.

Backers poured $4.2 million in online donations, the most ever for any candidate on a single day, on Nov. 5. Now his supporters are looking to break that record on Dec. 16 with a similar Internet event, this one with a Boston Tea Party theme.

What's more, the candidate himself is not soliciting the money, hosting events or hiring pros to bring in the contributions.

The cash flow is almost entirely driven by Paul supporters, who have set up Web sites for the fundraising, organized door-to-door canvassing, and formed more than 1,300 neighborhood "Meet-up" groups through the Internet — all with little or no direction from the official campaign.

In short, the 72-year-old obstetrician-lawmaker who says the nation should return to the modest government envisioned by the 18th century Founding Fathers, has inspired a movement for the online, logged-in 21st century.

Other campaigns have used the tools of the Internet as a way to mobilize massive numbers of donors. "Ron Paul was able to take it to the next level," said Alan Rosenblatt, associate director of online advocacy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal-leaning research and policy group.

Paul's "bottom up" organization — built and run by the grass roots and supported by thousands of small donations — has succeeded by tapping into issues that people care about, such as lower taxes and "getting the government out of my life," Rosenblatt said.

Although Paul has flatly ruled out a third-party run for the White House, his maverick campaign provides evidence that a future third party or independent movement could gain a national foothold.

Paul's contributors come from every state, with his biggest backing coming from Texas. As of the end of September, his home state supporters had given $731,649 of the total $8.2 million collected by his campaign. Austin residents donated just over $108,000, according to the latest available Federal Election Commission reports.

His donors often say they were fed up with politics and politicians when they discovered Paul's message in TV interviews or on Web sites.

"I had never been involved in politics in any way," said Mike E. Linam, an Austin, Texas, business consultant, who said his concern about illegal immigration first drew him to Paul. But the candidate's opposition to foreign intervention and big spending closed the deal.

Linam, who has never voted in a primary, now not only regularly donates to the Paul campaign but joined fellow supporters in making and posting hundreds of signs around Austin.

Tony Bonilla, an animator with Midway Studio, a video game company in Austin, has made multiple donations to the Paul campaign.

"I'm tired of big government," he said. "People with our views don't have a voice in Washington."

Paul draws heavily from small contributors, with nearly half giving $200 or less. His donors tend toward high tech industries as well as the military. More than other Republican campaigns, the Paul donations are overwhelmingly from men — 81 percent.

Joe Mellon, a computer systems manager from the Atlanta suburb of Johns Cabin who has no party affiliation, said he heard Paul on a C-SPAN-TV film and has since become a self-described "Ron Paul addict."

His wife, Martha, who had been a "Jimmy Carter Democrat," was soon won over. They began contributing and last April started a "Meet-up" group for the candidate — then only the eighth in the nation —in nearby Alpharetta. The group now boasts more than 200 Paul supporters.

The flood of cash, which Paul has said will go toward buying advertising, won't bring an election victory, predicted John Coleman, political science professor at the University of Wisconsin. "It means he can stick around a little longer" in the presidential race.

However, Coleman said, "It's probably one of the more promising developments for a third party that we've seen in a long time."