OMalleys presidential campaign is perilously close to financial collapse
With barely 10 weeks before Democrats start picking their presidential nominee, former Maryland governor Martin OMalleys campaign is perilously close to financial collapse.
The Democratic hopeful this week began asking the roughly 30 staffers at his Baltimore headquarters to redeploy to Iowa and elsewhere, a tacit acknowledgment that he will need a surprisingly strong showing in the first caucus state to stay in the race.
And the campaign is now planning to seek public matching funds, a move that could help pay bills in the short term but undercut the candidates ability to compete once the voting begins. In recent cycles, major candidates have opted out of the antiquated matching system because it imposes state-by-state spending caps now considered impractical.
You might get the plane off the ground, but then you quickly run out of gas, said Joe Trippi, a veteran Democratic operative who served as the co-manager of the 2008 campaign of John Edwards, the last major Democratic candidate to accept matching funds and the accompanying spending limits.
Given the meager amount OMalley has raised to this point, its not a dumb thing to seek matching funds, Trippi said. But, he added: You die now or die later. Either way, its not going to end well.
