It is understood that the Democratic general election campaign will likely generate $1 billion in resources for 2016.
Fred Malek, who was John McCain’s National Finance Chairman and a major fundraiser for Mitt Romney, was interviewed today on CNN. In response to a question on the state of the campaign in regards to where both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in comparison to where Trump is and whether he could ‘catch up’ Malek stated:
"It will be very difficult"
He further suggested there were three things Trump needed to be ready to do to be competitive in the general election.
1. Unify the party
"He’s got to reach out, show more tolerance, more inclusiveness and show that he's receptive and open to ideas from other people."
Malek also said Trump must recognize that in his efforts to unify the party “he can't expect them to grovel to him”.
(I want to witness when someone suggests this to his face)
2. Establish national fundraising organization
“Most of these candidates have been in business for about two years before you get to the convention and he's been at it now for only about two weeks. "
He stated it takes time to develop an organization to the state and city level with established bundlers who are willing to hold events.
3. Write a big check
“...therefore he better be prepared to write a check close to $500 million if he wants to be competitive."
Malek believes based on the calendar today that Trump will be able to “raise half of that amount” when referring to the $1billion needed to run a presidential campaign.
These seem high bars for The Donald to cross. He has however confounded expectations to date so we must all work to unify around our own nominee to insure his defeat.