Mitt Romney for President My Man Mitt: Evans-Novak Numbers Need More Context

UPDATE: The ENPR Editors contacted us to admit that they were not specific enough on their comparison (It is accurate that Paul beat the actual dollars pulled in by Romney on January 8th. The Romney campaign had actual dollars and "pledges" for $6.5 million while Paul's amount was in actual dollars for that day.) The original title of this post ("Evans-Novak et al. Meet the Facts") is thus misleading and we apologize.

I received the Evans-Novak Political Report today in which they report:

Rep. Ron Paul set fundraising records on Monday, pulling in $4.2 million in online donations in one day. This is the largest single day of online fundraising in political history, and the largest single day of donations for any Republican candidate ever.

It is really hard to know where this story got started, because "Googling" the search string:

fundraising record republicans "ron paul"

reveals 573,000 references to Ron Paul's supposed record of $4.2 million!

Changing the entry to:

fundraising record republicans romney january

yields at the top of the list an article in the Washington Post with this quote:

Romney has labored in single digits in polling but has been an aggressive fundraiser. He launched his campaign with a "National Call Day" at the convention center in Boston in January, where nearly 400 of his supporters, including Meg Whitman, the chief executive of eBay, and Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt called friends to ask them to back Romney. The event raised a whopping $6.5 million in a single day.

The January event was also covered in the Boston Globe.

As I was wondering who to blame for the inaccurate reporting, I suddenly remembered all those dial-in polls on Fox after the Republican debates, which always show that Ron Paul wins handily...

Need proof? Check out the picture Justin took in January:


	5 Comments: The amount claimed by the Ron Paul campaign is described as "donations" and they probably didn't consider pledges raised by Mitt in the comparison. By Anonymous, at November 8, 2007 at 2:09 AM I think they are distinguishing between online fund raising (Ron Paul supporters) and one day fund raising (Mitt's combination of online and phone bank fund raising). With that distinction, I don't think the reporting is inaccurate, merely misleading. Matt Erickson Bangor, Maine By Matt, at November 8, 2007 at 7:48 AM I believe the hair that is being split is that GMR's total included "commitments", with the implication that the Ronulans all got their cash to Paul on that day. Anyway you look at it, its still an impressive stunt. By Anonymous, at November 8, 2007 at 10:11 AM I know, I was starting to think I was crazy because no one was pointing out the fallacy for Ron Paul's statement. A large group of Mitt supporters are organizing an event much like the one Ron Paul's supporters had on November 5th. We are having it on the 7th of December and the website is http://december7thformitt.com/ By PolticalJunkie2008, at November 8, 2007 at 6:24 PM Why is it that supporters of any candidate would exploit horrible or tragic events? I might donate to Mitt on Dec. 7th, but I'm not sure that the attack on Pearl Harbor should be used as a day to raise money for any candidate.As FDR said, this is "a date which will live in infamy." Romney supporters should change this big drive to a different date. There are probably more uplifting days to choose for fundraising. Regardless, it's still less tactless than Ron Paul's supporters wanting to blow up Parliament or celebrating this act openly. Their display in support of anarchy and murder is disgusting to me. By Anonymous, at November 9, 2007 at 12:24 AM Post a Comment