Kentucky Gubernatorial Candidate Phil Moffett Raises $10,000.00 In 2 Day Money "Bomb"!

Moffett's online fundraiser takes in $10,000
By ROGER ALFORD

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) -- Tea party gubernatorial candidate Phil Moffett raised about $10,000 in a two-day online fundraiser set to end Tuesday, not nearly enough to ease the campaign's financial woes.

The Louisville businessman has struggled to raise campaign cash for a three-way Republican primary race, taking in less than $100,000 since entering last year. A better-known opponent, state Senate President David Williams, has received most of the contributions from the state's Republican establishment, banking more than $1 million so far.

"We never said this was going to be easy or quick," Moffett campaign manager David Adams said Tuesday.

Moffett, who has received endorsements from several tea party groups, had hoped to tap into the national movement that had played a vital role last year in funding U.S. Sen. Rand Paul's come-from-behind campaign. But so far, the national tea party has largely steered clear of the Kentucky gubernatorial race, one of only three in the country.

Trying to overcome his financial struggles, Moffett turned to Trevor Lyman, a musician-turned-fundraiser who helped Paul's father, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, raise millions on the Internet for an unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid.

Moffett faces Williams and Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw in the May 17 Republican primary. Holsclaw hasn't yet released fundraising figures.

All three campaigns will file financial documents with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance later this month that will show their contributions from January through the end of March.

Adams said he believes Moffett's fiscally conservative philosophy will be appealing to the same Kentucky voters who overwhelmingly elected Rand Paul last year.

"There is time to communicate that," Adams said.

Moffett has been largely unable to tap Kentucky's Republican establishment for money and had hoped Lyman could help his campaign generate tea party cash needed for advertising and TV time.

Lyman's fundraising approach, which he calls "moneybombs," involves using the Internet - primarily through blogs, e-mail and social-networking sites - to spread the word that on a set day people will "bomb" the candidate with contributions. Lyman raised more than $400,000 in a single day for Rand Paul's race last year.

Holsclaw's political adviser, Mike Karem, said Moffett's campaign in floundering.

"Undoubtedly, it was a bomb," Karem said Tuesday. "It shows he can't get money here, and he can't get money anywhere else. The tea party has forsaken him."

Williams campaign manager Scott Jennings declined to comment on the Moffett fundraiser.

Moffett's fundraising initiative came late in the primary race. Already, incumbent Gov. Steve Beshear, who is unopposed in the Democratic primary, has begun purchasing ads on political Web sites bashing Williams as if he already has the GOP nomination in hand.

At last report, Beshear had raised more than $3 million.