LaRouche Leads in Money Raised in Iowa, Ohio, and Wisconsin

PRESS RELEASE

LaRouche, Leader of Democratic Presidential Field in Individual Contributions, Also Leads in Money Raised in Iowa, Ohio, and Wisconsin

May 2, 2003 (EIRNS)—This release was issued today by the candidate's Presidential political committee, LaRouche in 2004.

Democratic Presidential candidate Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. leads the field of Democratic candidates for President in money raised, number of contributions, and number of contributors in Iowa, Ohio and Wisconsin—a reality the Democratic National Committee is trying to deny.

The Democratic Leadership Council-dominated DNC is exerting bizarre pressure on its state parties, to look like fools, and exclude the candidate with the broadest support from upcoming forums for Democratic Presidential candidates in Ohio and Wisconsin.

LaRouche said: "The Federal Election Commission reports, and our supplementary information on the extended support means, that, in terms of contributions, contributors, I'm the number one candidate, presently, for the Democratic nomination for 2004. Now, under those circumstances, no party can claim to be serious, and keep the frontrunner, the current frontrunner in the campaign, from the controversy." LaRouche made these remarks to South Carolina News Network on April 28, respecting his exclusion from ABC-TV's debate there on May 3. After refusing to invite LaRouche, ABC-TV decided the debate it was sponsoring among the other Democratic Presidential candidates would be too dull to air live!

LaRouche's strategy is to build a mass-based campaign organization in every state. Unlike other candidates, he is not raising money from deep pocket donors in a few states, to spend in the rest of the nation.

In Iowa, the first contest of the 2004 campaign, LaRouche has raised $24,721, in 212 individual contributions from 43 people. Sen. John Kerry is a distant second, with $11,000, followed by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean ($7,750), Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich ($1,711) and Missouri's Rep. Dick Gephardt's $1,000, from three donors.

In Ohio, the Democratic Party has so far declined to include LaRouche in its Presidential candidates forum on May 17. LaRouche leads all the other candidates in Ohio in money raised, number of individual contributions, and number of contributors, with $100,622, 660 individual contributions, and 159 contributors. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina is a close second, with $99,700, but only 100 contributions from 85 contributors. Next are Gephardt ($57,950), Sen. Joe Lieberman ($42,000), Kerry ($23,900), Kucinich ($12,650), Dean ($8,401) and New York Rev. Al Sharpton ($1,020). Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, and former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun have no Ohio contributions.

In Wisconsin, where the Democratic Party will host a Presidential candidates forum on May 30, LaRouche has raised more than twice the amount of any other candidate, with $52,476, in 422 contributions, from 87 individuals. Lieberman is second ($23,500), then Dean ($8,986), Edwards ($4,300), Kucinich ($2,500), and Kerry ($500). Candidates Gephardt, Graham, Moseley-Braun, and Sharpton have no contributions from Wisconsin.

Local Democrats in Ohio and Wisconsin are urging Party officials to include LaRouche, who is #1 in individual contributions—the most objective measure of mass support—according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission through March 31, 2003. The FEC's contribution reports cover all individuals who have cumulatively contributed $200 or more.