ST. PAUL, MINN. — Republican Party officials have developed a well-deserved reputation for planning evermore extravagant national conventions, each built on the party's ability to secure abundant cash.
But just six weeks before the convention, where Arizona Sen. John McCain is to accept his party's nomination, executives found they were about $10 million short of what they needed for a celebration they had already scaled back.
Officials say they have already secured most of the funds and that meeting budget needs was never in doubt. Still, this previously unknown -- and rather unusual -- last-minute GOP fundraising headache underscores the challenges facing both parties: A souring economy, complex campaign finance rules and the candidates' talk of reform has discouraged participation by corporations and the lobbyists who advocate for them.
It also lays bare the pressures facing midsize metropolitan areas such as the Twin Cities and Denver, where local business leaders must join home-state elected officials to plead for tens of millions of dollars in donations from companies and wealthy individuals to cover costs.
Now, officials from both parties are joining campaign finance reform advocates in calling for change.
"It's a challenge for midsize cities to raise this kind of money for conventions like these," said Jeff Larson, a GOP political consultant who chairs the Twin Cities convention host committee.
Larson stresses that all of the committee's obligations and deadlines have been met and that fundraising overall is now in good shape. Still, he said, "I think both the RNC and the DNC recognize they are going to have to find a way to do things a little differently in the future."
To make up the last $10 million, the Twin Cities host committee relied in part on a wealthy out-of-town GOP donor: Robert Wood "Woody" Johnson IV, owner of the New York Jets and heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune.
Johnson, a top fundraiser for McCain's presidential campaign, had already been helping the host committee informally. But on July 18, the local committee named him as the local committee's national finance chairman. Convention funding sources said Johnson, who has family in Minnesota, tapped other wealthy donors that he knows and was able to raise money quickly.
