July 05, 2011 1:47 PM
ABC News’ Rick Klein (@rickklein) reports:
Rather than being intimidated by the growing campaign war-chests of his rivals, newly minted presidential candidate Thaddeus McCotter sees their inability to raise even larger sums as evidence that there’s room for him in the 2012 field.
“The very fact that we're seeing people unable to raise the money that they've talked about shows what has to come first is not the money, but the message,” said McCotter, a Republican congressman from Michigan, on ABC's "Top Line" Tuesday.
“We've seen the people dissatisfied with the field despite the fact that, as you point out, they've been running for years. And so, in doing my due diligence in Iowa and New Hampshire obviously in Michigan and elsewhere in the country, you see the people are open to new candidates and new messages, even at this traditionally late point in the campaign. So I've announced I'm going to go forward. My intent is to win, and that'll be up to the people whether they like the message or not.”
As second quarter fundraising totals trickle out, it’s clear that several leading contenders – most notably Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, and former House speaker Newt Gingrich – have struggled to raise funds. Even GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney is poised to report less than $20 million for the quarter – a considerable sum, but behind the pace he set himself four years ago.
For his part, McCotter is building a campaign on part of his championing of the U.S. auto industry. He’s simultaneously critical of regulation that he said forced Detroit to the financial brink, and to those – like Romney – who opposed the government’s auto bailout.
“The first thing that shouldn't have happened is -- as I remind my Republican colleagues -- is there shouldn't have been an $80 billion mandate on the auto industry for higher CAFE [fuel efficiency] standards,” McCotter said. “The willingness of so many people to watch government mandates on a private business entity is problematical, and it helped them to push to the point they were.”
Still, McCotter said, U.S. automakers needed the federal assistance they got:
“What we saw was an auto industry and a manufacturing base that was in peril and also had to go through a continued and intensified restructuring for the future -- the need of which for the assistance was there,” he said. “What we also have to understand was at the very same time what you saw was the $700 billion that was sent to Wall Street was sitting there under the guise of ‘too big to fail.’ ”
Regarding his own political future, McCotter declined to say whether he would seek reelection to his House seat at the same time he’s running for president.
“I'm focusing on the presidency. All of the considerations are not part of the equation, and I'm always fascinated by people who have that type of question in their mind, because I do have the necessary healthy respect for the office of the presidency and the American people.”
Watch the full interview with Rep. Thad McCotter HERE.
Rep. McCotter: America Needs a Manufacturing Base
The latest 2012 hopeful weighs in on America's economy and manufacturing future.
07/05/2011
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