Redstate

By Mark Kilmer Posted in 2006 — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Lynn Swann is the Republican gubernatorial candidate for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Much ink has been spilled about the Swann campaign THIS and they have to THAT. Heck, that's why we have pundits.

From David M. Brown in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

The Republican National Committee and Republican Governors Association are bolstering their efforts on behalf of Swann, a former Steelers star who lives in Sewickley Heights.

The governors' association, which previously contributed $250,000 to Swann, sponsored fundraisers for the Pro Football Hall-of-Famer yesterday in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

"We think it's absolutely winnable," said Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, vice chairman of the Republican Governors Association, who spoke at a reception for Swann at Heinz Field.

The RNC is featuring Swann's candidacy prominently on its Web site, with a link to Swann's campaign.

RNC spokesman Aaron McLear said Swann and other GOP candidates appear on the Web site on a rotating basis. "It's an opportunity for us to feature candidates we're supporting," he said.

There is a huge difference between writing about and critiquing a campaign and actually running one, day-to-day. No one who matters to its success has written off this campaign.

The Trib story reports the President's fundraising visit to Lancaster this coming August, something we reported at SwannBlog last week. The campaign is not lost in a parochial haze, limiting itself to Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania figures. This has to be bigger than all that.

(read on...)

Mike Young, a retired Penn State University political science professor, said Swann's best hope for raising enough money to run a competitive race in the fall "is to try to nationalize his fundraising."

"He needs to literally take a page out of Rendell's play book and do some out-of-state fundraising," Young said. "Swann has got to find ways to tap into national Republican sources of money."

It's not automatically easy to keep track of such fundraising when you're here rather than there, but we noted last week at SwannBlog that Georgia uber-conservative Herman Cain had endorsed Swann in a fundraising letter. For folks in Pennsylvania, there might be some mumbles: WHO? For southern conservatives, there is no doubt.

This is a winnable contest. Ed Rendell cannot be allowed four more years of Commonwealth mismanagement.

(cross-posted at the SwannBlog)