Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, struggling in the polls and desperate to kick-start his fledgling campaign for the White House, reportedly raised over $800,000 at a private fundraising dinner in Minneapolis on Wednesday night. Some 400 Pawlenty supporters attended the event.
The fifty-year-old Pawlenty, making his first bid for national office, acknowledged that he won’t be able to compete with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s fundraising prowess, but said that his goal was “to raise enough money to have at least a Buick, if not a Cadillac-level, campaign.”
Pawlenty, whose candidacy is still in the exploratory stage, raised a similar amount in fundraisers held in Chicago and Texas last week.
The former two-term governor of Minnesota is expected to announce his candidacy in the next few weeks.
The $800,000 raised by Pawlenty on Wednesday is a drop in the bucket compared to the more than $10 million dollars raised by Romney on Monday during a fundraising event in Las Vegas. The former Massachusetts governor spent $98 million in pursuing the Republican nomination four years ago, including at least $42.3 million of his own money.
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