He may be whistling past the political graveyard in today?s Examiner interview about the race for U.S. Senate, but ex-Congressman Kweisi Mfume said he?s used to being the underfunded underdog in campaigns people said he couldn?t win.
In his first race for Baltimore City Council in 1979, “They said: ?Nice guy, funny name, can?t win,no money, can?t win.? I ran a campaign on $10,000. Got elected by three votes. It?s still the closest election in the history of the state of Maryland,” Mfume said. “Oh, and when I ran for Congress, I had $60,000 for the entire campaign. They said: ?Damn good guy, but he can?t win.? ”
“It is not about who endorsed you or how many people endorsed you, and it?s not about how much money you raised, it?s about what you have to say, what you believe in,” he said.
Recent polls of Democratic primary voters seem to confirm Mfume?s point, showing him, at worst, eight points behind Rep. Ben Cardin, 39 percent to 31 percent, and at best, running neck and neck with Cardin.
The problem for Mfume and the other Democrats is that Cardin is by far the top dog in the race for money. At $3.9 million, Cardin has raised six times Mfume?s total, and he has 14 times as much cash on hand ($2.6 million) as Mfume.
Lise Van Susteren said she quit the race Friday because she wasn?t going to be able to spend enough money on television ads that would give her the visibility that Cardin, a 10-term congressman, and Mfume, ex-president of the NAACP, already have.
American University professor Allan Lichtman admits he hasn?t raised what he would have liked for his campaign, but he promised to “continue to do creative things” to get attention, things like his first TV commercial, “the splash for change,” which showed him jumping into a pond.
The campaign has “a long way to go,” Lichtman said. “We?re going to create some breaks for ourselves,” and continue to push the message about “too much government intruding in our private lives, and too little government dealing with our needs.”
