Campaign Now in the Black, Kemp Says

The Republican presidential campaign of New York Rep. Jack Kemp has recovered from an early spell of disorganization and debt and, Kemp said Wednesday in New Hampshire, ended the first half of the year $150,000 in the black.

The new figures, showing Kemp has raised a total of roughly $3.3 million, are an improvement from his position in the spring, when he was forced to borrow money for campaign expenses and sent telegrams to supporters asking for help in meeting a “desperate” cash shortage.

But Kemp remains well behind the financial pace set by the leaders in the GOP race, Vice President George Bush and Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas.

Kemp, in a press conference in Manchester, said his campaign is now “in the black and running smoothly” and is “competitive with any other campaign in either party.” He said he has repaid all the money he borrowed.

Kemp campaign director Charles Black said that the conservative contender is now financially “in the same league with Dole,” and, although “Bush is in a league by himself, we don’t have to compete with the front-runner, who has to run a campaign in all 50 states.”

Bush has raised far more than any of the other Republican or Democratic candidates, “a little more than $9 million,” according to his campaign press secretary, Barbara Pardue. Quarterly financial reports due at the Federal Election Commission next week will show that “we will have in the bank a little over $5 million” after expenses, Pardue said.

Dole has raised roughly $3.7 million and has $1.4 million on hand, spokesman Tim Archie said. In addition, Dole can use $2 million left over from his last Senate campaign.

For most of his career, Kemp has relied heavily on large donors, but federal election law restricts the amount that large donors may give to presidential campaigns and provides a bonus for small contributions by matching payments for all contributions of $250 or less.

Kemp has begun an extensive direct-mail effort to raise such contributions, and so far it has eaten up about half of all the money he has raised, Black said.

Kemp aides estimate that he has raised enough to be eligible for about $1.8 million in federal matching funds, Black said. Dole campaign aides say they are eligible for about the same amount, and Bush campaign aides estimate that “about 40%” of their contributions, or roughly $3.6 million, will be matched by federal money.