Al Gore has already spent 42 percent of his purse on a busload of consultants and events like a do at Manhattan's Pierre Hotel that cost $7,500. Said Bush strategist Karl Rove: "We are the cost-conscious campaign."
How George W. Bush Pinches His Pennies
Rival campaigns laughed when George W. Bush's campaign paid
$43,500 in a silent auction to rent prime space at next month's
Iowa straw poll. "They took the bait," chuckled an adviser to
Lamar Alexander. But Bush is laughing now. Rather than dip into
his campaign chest, he had six donors cover the tab. Too clever,
says Steve Forbes' team, which charges that the end run is a
violation of campaign laws that prohibit individuals from giving
more than $1,000 to a candidate. The Bush folks say that since
the money went to the Iowa Republican Party, they broke no rules.
Perhaps that kind of fiscal ingenuity is why Bush has spent only
a fifth of the $37 million he has raised and why he announced he
would forgo nearly $17 million in matching federal funds in
exchange for not being held to campaign spending limits.