U.S. Senate hopeful J.D. Hayworth says his campaign raised more than $1 million in the month of March, including about $100,000 late last night.
Right.
At the beginning of March, Hayworth embarked on an ambitious fund-raising goal of a million dollars for the month. He gave it the catchy name "Million Dollar March."
Last night, as the month was coming to a close, we took a look at J.D.'s Web site to see how he was doing, and as of 10:28 p.m., the Hayworth campaign claimed to have raised $935,995.
That's almost $40,000 more than it had claimed to have raised just two hours earlier, as you can see in the screen grab above.
We thought, "Shucks, there's no way J.D. can scrape together $65,000 in 90 minutes."
Low and behold, J.D. claims he did it.
The Hill is reporting today that Hayworth fell short of his lofty goal, but the Hayworth campaign maintains this morning that not only did it meet the million dollars, but exceeded it.
"U.S. Senate candidate J.D.Hayworth today thanked supporters across the state and the nation for helping his campaign exceed $1 million in contributions and sending a strong message to the Washington establishment during the 'Million Dollar March,'" the campaign boasts in a press release this morning. "Donations came from all fifty states with Arizona leading the way."
Maybe this is an April fools joke (or a ruse to attract supporters) on behalf of the Hayworth campaign, but the numbers -- as McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers puts it -- "don't pass the smell test."
"JD's money bomb is about as legit as an ACORN voter-registration drive," Rogers tells New Times.
According to Rogers, just 10 days ago the Hayworth campaign had less than $500,000 in its piggy bank, yet, somehow managed to tally enough to meet its million-dollar goal.
Rogers is suspicious that the Hayworth campaign might be counting pledges -- not actual cash -- to give the illusion of support.
"Obviously they're juicing the numbers at this point," he says "The reality is there are more questions than answers about this thing."
We contacted the Hayworth campaign to try to get answers, but Hayworth campaign manager David Payne didn't immediately return our call.
