Thompson tries to keep grassroots appeal with cash, for once, rolling in

BELLEFONTE -- Glenn Thompson's new headquarters is so empty and long -- it extends nearly half a football field from its back wall to front door -- the Republican congressional candidate might hear an echo if he yelled inside of it. The only desks in the downtown Bellefonte office are mostly pushed into a corner, sitting next to freshly opened cardboard boxes and piles of Styrofoam packing.

Fewer than a 100 days before the general election, he's still moving in.

It's odd to see any congressional candidate, much less a heavily favored Republican in the rural 5th Congressional District, moving into an office so near the election. The late relocation might even be interpreted as a warning sign that the candidate is ill-prepared for the fall.

But for Thompson, it represents the transition of his campaign from an exclusively grassroots, "mom-and-pop" operation to a professional one befitting someone whom many consider the heir-apparent to Republican U.S. Rep. John Peterson, who is retiring. The transition officially began earlier this month when he announced he raised nearly $125,000 in the second fundraising quarter -- nearly five times what he raised before the primary.

In Thompson's words, his primary campaign was a true "grassroots effort" as he faced opponents outspending him much more than 100-to-1. He talked to every local newspaper, every chamber of commerce and appeared at as many doors as he could, he said.

"We knew going in, if I was going to win this thing, we had to put boots on the ground," Thompson told PolitickerPA.com while sitting in his new office. "I put 18,000 miles on my car, and I made everyone of those miles count."

Thompson raised less than $25,000 for his primary campaign, more than half of that coming in the final weeks before April 22. The dollar-store budget forced him to run his campaign out his home's living room and selectively decide how and when to purchase advertisements.

Craig Lucas, Thompson's campaign manager, described how volunteers would work all night out of Thompson's home to put together mailings, which he said can cost $30,000 to $35,000 if done professionally.

"It was more of a letter," Lucas said. "They had to put it in an envelope, put a stamp on it, label it.

"People appreciated that," he said.

Thompson, who won the primary with 19.2 percent of the vote, also acknowledges circumstances beyond his control gave him a significant advantage. Two of the leading candidates, and certainly the two most well-funded, were involved in separate scandals before the primary. Derek Walker, who finished second in the primary, had felony criminal charges filed against him days before the primary. Matt Shaner, who finished third, admitted being involved in a drunk-driving accident in 2007 and calling a local district attorney when police confronted him outside of his home.

Those two incidents, combined with unpredictability of any nine-way race and a last-minute endorsement from Peterson, helped push Thompson over the top.

"Make no mistake, I recognize the primary campaign was like the perfect storm," Thompson said. "My focus was on my message, and not on my competitors. With that race there were $3 million, 4 million dollars being spent -- to win on $24,000 is pretty incredible."

But as Thompson faces Democrat Mark McCracken this fall, he already knows he's in a much different position financially after McCraken raised a little less than $15,000 in the second quarter.

Thompson said he knows better than anybody the money advantage isn't a free pass into office. He will try to campaign the same way he did when being outspent by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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He hasn't changed in the few months since the primary, he said.

"I'm not getting any more sleep than I did in the primary," Thompson said. "My head hit the pillow at 3:30 a.m." the night of the primary. "The first phone call came at 6:15 a.m., and it's been off and running since."