The site ticker meter only goes up to less than half the previous record. Obviously they never expected it to break the record. It was decided before the campaign even really started to have a bunch of moneybombs throughout the year, as opposed to only a few big ones. It was determined that the utility of having a more constant stream of money outweighed any benefits to be had from a couple big splash bomb numbers.
Which, so far, seems to be the right call. There have been roughly 6 moneybombs (not including this one) in 6 months…and they’ve averaged well over $1 million each. Having the constant momentum is helpful in different ways. It makes funding more predictable, and allows for better budgeting. It makes for a more constant, rolling campaign, with supporter involvment on the grassroots level being much more sustained, as opposed to peaking and troughing every 4-6 months. Not to mention, in the beginning (4 years ago) it was helpful to have huge splashes to make waves and get attention, but at this point Paul has the name recognition, wins all the straw polls and the online polls, and everyone already knows (and assumes) he can raise money. So the effect of saying “The Ron Paul campaign raised over $6 million in one day” is not that much greater than saying “The Ron Paul campaign raised over a million dollars in one day”.
What they’ve been able to do with the current funding schedule is working quite well. The Ames straw vote worked out perfectly basically, and there have already been more than half a dozen TV ads that are 100 times better than anything he had last time around.
It’s not about breaking records any more. It’s still about being smart. And the facts have changed. So the strategy has changed.