Barr's Campaign Steps Up Appeals For Cash

Bob Barr's Libertarian Party bid for the White House needs cash, but is NOT on the verge of being broke, Barr's campaign manager said Tuesday. Despite a fund-raising plea he sent out recently that said the campaign's progress "will stop dead in its tracks" without an immediate cash infusion, Russ Verney told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Barr has enough money to maintain his campaign at present levels. But that's not the goal, Verney said. "We're able to raise enough money to execute our plan, but we've got ambitions and that takes even more money," Verney said Tuesday. Those ambitions center around participating in the national debates with Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama. Barr, a former Republican congressman from Cobb County, has said he needs to be at 15 percent in the national polls by mid-September to qualify. He's yet to come close to that mark, although recent polls have shown him at or near 10 percent in several states, including New Hampshire, Nevada and Arizona. Money would help that effort by allowing Barr to buy advertising, do direct mail and other staples of national campaigns.Bob Barr (right) with his running mate, Wayne Allyn Root.Thus far the campaign has mostly been limited to personal appearances from Barr and his vice presidential nominee, Wayne Allen Root, as well using the Internet to raise cash and spread the word through Web videos, blogs and social networks like Facebook. But the money has been slow to come. Verney would not say how much cash the campaign currently has to spend, but Barr's June 30 monthly report to the Federal Election Commission put that figure at $68,000. His Web site, bobbarr2008.com, tracks fund-raising hour-by-hour. As of Tuesday afternoon the site said the campaign had raised about $550,000 toward its goal of $750,000 by Friday. "All campaigns, the big money flows right in close to the election," Verney said, "when there's a lot of public attention. Summertime is not a great fund-raising time and this year you have the added problem of $4 a gallon gasoline and a recession hanging over people's heads. We're asking people to give as early and often as they can." Daniel Adams, chairman of the Georgia Libertarian Party, said it's important to keep the current crunch in perspective. Barr, by polling as well as he has, is on pace to be the best-performing Libertarian Party candidate ever. "We're miles beyond any past Libertarian candidacy, so we're in unchartered territory," Adams said.