As 2Q ends, candidates make last-minute fundraising pleas

When the clock strikes midnight, donations for the current federal campaign finance quarter end and candidates will have to report whatever cash they have managed to raise. Candidates on all levels made last-ditch pitches for some extra dough in the final hours.

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) kicked off the requests at 9:16 this morning, telling supporters in an email that "right now is the time to step up and own a piece of this campaign."

After the presidential candidate made his appeal, the congressional candidates jumped in.

At 10:34 a.m., the campaign of U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Abington) reminded supporters that "with this deadline fast approaching, there is no better time to support Allyson than today."

At 11:28, it was "just a reminder" from the campaign of Republican Tom Manion that the deadline was today and "any contributions you could make today would be helpful."

His opponent, U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Bristol), must have heard about Manion's little reminder, because after lunch he warned in bold type that U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) "is in my district, campaigning with my opponent."

"Mr. Manion and Senator McCain want to stay the course and continue indefinitely the Bush Doctrine of foreign policy," Murphy's campaign wrote, still very much in bold.

At 4:31 p.m., state Democratic chairman TJ Rooney told the party faithful that "Bob Roggio needs your help by midnight tonight!" Roggio is running against U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-West Pikeland) in the 6th Congressional District.

As afternoon turned to evening, Murphy chimed in again, telling supporters "we have 6 hours to go and we're less than $6,000 away with our goal." It was important to reach that goal of raising $15,000 online because at midnight "the right-wing fringe groups will decide where to dump their money."

But the most frantic pair of emails came from U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Edgmont). At 10:18, a message arrived with ominous subject heading: "He's Back........"

"He" was McCain, and Sestak said had that "not one" of the nation's 434 congressional districts had received more visits from the presumptive nominee as the four that Sestak's 7th. Sestak said he was $16,000 short of "where we need to be," and that "you are ... the last and only means we have to close the fund-raising advantage that my opponent [Craig Williams] has had for the past 12 weeks."

By the end of the day, Sestak was still emailing, sending a 5:41 message promising "we are almost there and need one final push to get us over the goal-line."