Red & Blue on Landrum

Red - Andy Taggart - I have previously disclosed my long-time friendship with and support of Gregg Harper in the GOP primary for the Third Congressional District seat. I am here disclosing that friendship and support again. I hope Gregg wins and I am working in a volunteer capacity to try to help him win. Having said that, I am really surprised that David Landrum has triggered the so-called "Millionaire's Amendment" to the federal campaign finance laws. I'm not surprised, mind you, that Landrum has enough money to trigger the Millionaire's Amendment. I'm just surprised he would do it, tactically speaking. Last year, Landrum gave his own campaign $200,000. Since the first of this year, he's put in another $210,000 (in seven weeks!). That $410,000 total exceeds the $350,000 limit that a candidate may give to his own campaign without allowing the limits on individual contributions to all the other candidates in the race to be tripled. What that all says to me is that Landrum has concluded that he can't get by with only giving his campaign $349,000 -- a huge sum, but still below the Millionaire's Amendment trigger. He has apparently decided that he must have even more money to get to where he needs to be in the race. Pretty interesting stuff that, and it confirms what the buzz has become in the campaign, which is that Landrum has peaked and is now tailing off. That's not the direction a candidate wants to see his campaign take in the last two weeks before the election. We're about to see first-hand whether campaign momentum can be pushed back up with cash alone, I guess.

Blue - Jere Nash - Andy's post may explain why Landrum's latest ad is so strident and provocative. If it is true that he's peaked, and if he realizes it, then he may believe his only way to salvage the election is to get on television with an ad that is so jarring that perhaps voters will finally take notice of his campaign.