Inside the Denn Campaign, Part 1

Well, I spent some time last week raising money for my campaign. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of doing fundraising for a statewide campaign, which will ultimately cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, here is a brief look inside.

[PHONE RINGS]
Matt’s Friend: Hello?
Matt: Hey, [fill in name of person who is Matt’s friend but rolls eyes and hides under desk when Matt’s name shows up on Caller ID within twelve months of an election]
Matt’s Friend: What’s going on?
Matt: Well, a little of this and a little of that. Hey, that reminds me, can I have a thousand dollars?
Matt’s Friend: No.
Matt: OK, how about nine hundred dollars?
Matt’s Friend: No.
[Continue until answer is “yes”]

The traditional wisdom is that once I receive a “yes,” I should slam the phone down and dispatch a youthful, earnest intern to drive at 60 miles per hour to my friend’s place of business to secure his funds before he has a chance to change his mind. But there are a few problems with this. First, my youthful, earnest interns don't have cars. Second, because I rarely get to talk to my friends on the phone, once I have finished begging for money I usually end up talking to them on the phone at length about other, less painful subjects. Like how completely overrated the last three Bruce Springsteen albums were. (I apologize, I put in the last sentence to antagonize one friend in particular.)

The good news is that the fundraising is going very well, agonizing though it may be. In my race for Insurance Commissioner in 2004, I raised almost half a million dollars. I think that this race will be much more expensive than that, perhaps twice as much. But I am on pace to raise the money, and we have four in-state and two out-of-state fundraisers scheduled in September and October. You can always do your part by clicking on http://www.mattdenn.com/contribute.htm.