Tea Party 2007: Ron Paul Sets a New Campaign Fund-Raising Record

Ron Paul has been a political dark horse for his entire campaign, facing a virtual media black-out at the beginning of the primary season. But with a $4.2-million one-day fund raising event on November 5th, 2007 congressman Paul was able to move from presidential unknown to a candidate worth watching, at least in the mainstream media's eyes. Even with this the media resumed ignoring Ron Paul for the most part after his record setting day.

But the grassroots efforts of Paul's supporters paired with the power of the internet have marginalized the traditional media in regards to Paul's candidacy with Ron Paul's YouTube channel drawing huge amounts of traffic and supporters coming up with all kinds of ways to stump for Ron Paul including a blimp.

And Ron Paul has done it again, breaking his original record setting fund raising effort on December 16th as well as breaking the previous one day fund raising record set by John Kerry in 2004, raising over $6-million dollars in one day.

And just like before, this fund drive was not organized by the Ron Paul campaign offices but by Ron Paul's supporters themselves. And for those who might miss the significance in the date of the first fund raising drive since it was on a date more famous in Britain than in America (Guy Fawkes Night - Gunpowder Plot) today's drive should be more familiar to those familiar with American history because December 16th, 2007 is the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, an event that was emblematic of the then coming American Revolution.

And this fact of history was not lost on Paul's supporters since they titled this fund raising effort "Tea Party '07". The Ron Paul campagin in many ways has been revolutionary, not only in the fact that it has set new records for online campaign contributions, but also in the fact that this campaign has been powered not by a huge official campaign machine but by Ron Paul's supporters themselves. The Ron Paul still has one big unknown to it: can Ron Paul win the nomination?

Ron Paul certainly hopes so and his supporters certainly think so. Ron Paul's campaign site even posts some rather encouraging straw poll numbers to this point showing Paul leading all the other candidates in the most recent polls. At the end of the day Ron Paul's message of liberty and limited government seem to be resonating with a surprising number of Americans, especially the young.

The question that won't be answered for at least another month though is will Ron Paul's supporters turn out and lead him to victory in any of the early primaries. Time will tell on this one, but if the energy in Ron Paul's supporters continues he should make a very good showing.