Peyton Manning only star listed in campaign donations
By Laurie Mavica
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 9/10/07 – Details have emerged on actor/politician Fred campaign finances that show practically no contributions from Hollywood, despite the fact that other major candidates have repeatedly tapped entertainment community coffers to great success.
The former Tennessee senator and “Law & Order” star is running second behind Rudy Giuliani in polls of the GOP candidates with 22%, up 3 points from since August. John McCain, who bottomed out in a USA TODAY poll in mid-August after financial woes and a staff shake-up, has rebounded by 4 percentage points, to 15%. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has slipped 4 points from August, to 10%.
Even though he just announced officially last Wednesday, he was still required to submit a financial record to the IRS at the end of July. Thompson has been raising money through a 527 committee, “Friends of Friend Thompson.” The political group is a tax-exempt organization in the U.S. that is regulated by the IRS, not the Federal Election Commission, as are most candidates.
The former actor finally made it public that he was running for president on “The Jay Leno Show,” but he has yet to see any significant contributions from Hollywood supporters. Assumedly by choice, since two fundraisers with his television and film friends could double his $2 million warchest.
Of all the candidates, Thompson would benefit greatly as former actors and Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger always did in their backyards.
Critics are saying the IRS filings were Thompson’s way of dodging federal campaign finance rules, by him not disclosing donor information to the FEC. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the former “Law and Order” actor said that he just wanted to see if people were interested enough in him before he made a formal bid.
Thompson had planned to raise $5 million by the end of July, but has raised only about $2 million. More than half of Thompson’s campaign money appears to be donated from his home state of Tennessee.
Law firms, retirees and the real estate industry have been some of his top donors and supporters so far. This includes Howard Baker, a former U.S. Senator from Tennessee; Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, an alumnus of the University of Tennessee; and William Haslam, the mayor of Knoxville. Other contributors include employees of the investment adviser INS Capital Management, the Missouri-based holding company Gannon International and the Washington law and lobbying firm Akin, Gump.
Thompson is significantly less well known than Giuliani or McCain — 28% of Republicans say they’ve never heard of Thompson, compared with 8% for Giuliani and 9% for McCain.
Among those Republicans who know all four leading contenders, Giuliani and Thompson are essentially tied.