Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WI
08-19-07
Thompson bid never gained traction
Not enough money, too many flubs doomed run for White House
By KATHERINE M. SKIBA
kskiba@journalsentinel.com
Washington - A week after Tommy Thompson abandoned his presidential
campaign, here's what went wrong:
Too little money.
Too many gaffes.
Too many of the 2,300 tickets, purchased by his campaign for voters in the Iowa
GOP straw poll, apparently found their way to another candidate. The tickets, at
$35 a piece, cost him $80,500.
The Republican Party of Iowa rules for the mock election, held Aug. 11 in Ames,
allowed this to happen.
Thompson, 65, the longest-serving governor in Wisconsin history and a one-term
cabinet secretary, said Friday that his campaign had been poised on straw poll
day to buy another 1,000 tickets for an additional $35,000.
"We just held back, and thank God we did," Thompson said Friday.
Today, he's faced with retiring about $100,000 in campaign debt after the first
election that he has lost in 28 years.
He captured only 1,039 votes in the mock election, for sixth place, and declared
a day later, last Sunday, that he was calling it quits.
Arguably, Thompson seemed to have been in striking distance of his goal of
coming in second place to the favorite, Mitt Romney.
Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, did end up taking the top prize
with 4,516, or 31%, of the 14,302 votes cast.
Another former governor, Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, took second place with
2,587, or 18%. In the contest, as much a carnival as a civic exercise, Huckabee
has drawn huzzahs for beating a host of second-tier candidates including
Thompson.
Thompson's unimpressive finish was not predictable if one looked at his lifetime
election record, 16-1.
Until the straw poll eight days ago, his only loss came in a 1979 primary for the
House seat won by Tom Petri of Fond du Lac.
Interstate troubles
All Thompson's wins, then, were for jobs in Wisconsin: governor, state
Assemblyman and county board supervisor.
Across the state line, he could not catch fire when seeking the attention of
Iowans.
Money, he said Friday, was a factor. "I thought I could raise a couple million
dollars quickly in Wisconsin - and it didn't happen for whatever reason. I was
always underfunded and had to fight to get my message out," he said.
The straw poll took place under beastly hot conditions at Iowa State University
in Ames. Going in to the balloting, ISU political scientist Steffen W. Schmidt
said Thompson's positives were his experience and the time that he spent
wooing state voters. But Schmidt said he could not decipher Thompson's
message or what cut him out from the field.
Issues, Schmidt said, may have meant less than intangibles.
Yes, voters want to be simpatico with candidates on the issues, he said, "but
that's secondary to their overall general perception: Is the person honest, a
strong leader, do they have integrity and the personality characteristics that let
you connect with them in a subliminal way?"
He said he had spoken to a handful of Iowa Republicans who had seen
Thompson stump and had the same vibe: old-fashioned. Not in a charming way
but in a behind-the-times sense; Thompson seemed disconnected from America
2007, Schmidt said.
"He wasn't getting any traction," Schmidt said.
Money troubles
Talking about money, political scientist Dennis Goldford of Drake University in
Des Moines compares it to gas in a car: Candidates go nowhere without it.
Thompson hoped to fire up his future fund raising by coming in first or second;
but already front-runners have amassed tens of millions of dollars.
At the end of June, Thompson had raised only $890,000, including $100,000 of
his own money, records show.
His spending on the straw poll and a final push across the state in an Iowa-built
Winnebago cost about $400,000, said Steve Grubbs, his senior national adviser.
The money never streamed in as hoped. A photo July 12 in Davenport, during his
110-stop Winnebago tour, shows a crowd of supporters holding letters of the
alphabet spelling out "Please send money."
Old friend backed Romney
Even Wisconsin's Jim Klauser, for 40 years a top ally, turned elsewhere. Earlier,
he had run the four Thompson gubernatorial races and held top state positions.
Klauser became Wisconsin chairman of Thompson's presidential exploratory
committee but gave to Romney. He said Friday that the title meant that he would
have run a favorite son campaign for Thompson in Wisconsin had he gotten that
far.
Thompson's old buddy Klauser now seems a sore subject, the one time during
an interview in which Thompson had no comment.
Now a retired utility executive, Klauser gave $2,300 to Romney and nothing to
Thompson.
Meanwhile, Klauser hosted an event for Romney at the Wisconsin Club last fall
and introduced him at a $1,000 breakfast at the University Club this year.
Klauser said the straw poll results didn't surprise him. "You have to build an
organization and people and Tommy came in late, and was substantially
underfunded, in part because he came in late," he said.
It was last fall that Thompson seriously hinted at running, and he made it official
April 4 in Milwaukee.
His small purse made for a modest ground game in Iowa, though, according to
spokesman Rennick Remley, it was enough to rent 32 buses to haul supporters
to the poll.
"Money always helps," Thompson said. "If I would have had more money, the
press would have been better. And I didn't have it."
A gaggle of gaffes
Throughout his race, Thompson touted his record as a reformer (welfare reform,
school choice), his ideas (from insuring the uninsured to finding a way forward in
Iraq) and his dream (cures for breast, prostate and colon cancers).
But for the one-term health and human services chief, a problem: foot-in-mouth
disease. He said Friday that he made mistakes - and had apologized, too.
In April, he told a Jewish group that making money was "part of the Jewish
tradition."
In a May debate, he said individual businesses should be able to fire gays if they
want. Wisconsin has a 25-year-old law barring job discrimination based on
sexual orientation. He blamed his error on a bad hearing aid and a need to use a
bathroom, because he was sick. Thompson, in retrospect, said he was so ill that
he should have sat that one out.
Iowa State's Schmidt, discussing the "gay gaffe," said even those who are not
particularly in favor of gay rights may have interpreted the remark as out of step.
In an Aug. 5 debate in Des Moines, Thompson declared: "I would open up the
East Wing. I would open it up to bring in the best minds, Democrat, Republican,
independent. . . "
The Oval Office is in the West Wing; the first lady's office is in the East Wing.
He looked tired. He came to Ames with a stubborn cough; aides said even the
antibiotic Zithromax couldn't knock it out.
At the time he blamed the Journal Sentinel for his limited funds, saying its
negative coverage "dried up the money" in Wisconsin that he needed to win
Iowa. He said as governor he could raise $100,000 a night; now he was lucky to
collect $5,000 a night.
Still, he had respected campaign operatives in Iowa and a plan to turn out straw
poll voters. But like so much else, the strategy nose-dived.
Aides said he has been courted for his endorsement, but as of Friday, when he
was flying back to Iowa for a farewell dinner with advisers and volunteers, he had
not thrown his support to anyone.
"I didn't do well in the straw poll, and I was really embarrassed and hurt after it
happened, but how many people can run for president? And how many people
can come out with innovative ideas in the campaign?
"If I get my ideas out there," he said, naming cures for cancer, medical diplomacy
and health care reforms, "it'll be worth it. That could be the silver lining."