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McCain Holds Fundraiser Downtown

Posted Jun 20, 2007 by William March

Updated Jun 20, 2007 at 02:47 PM

Arizona Sen. John McCain continued a mostly fundraising campaign swing through Florida today, hitting a lunch at Tampa’s City Club where organizers said about 200 people attended, most paying $1,000 each.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe, county co-chairman for McCain along with Sheriff David Gee, called the event a big success. “The place was packed,” he said.

Sharpe, Gee and developer Don Phillips were hosts of the fundraiser.

Sharpe said McCain was in top form—“engaging, funny, everything we remember from 2000.”

The schedule on McCain’s web site showed him holding an event in St. Petersburg as well, but with no details on a time or place, and no such event took place. Several St. Pete GOP activists, including Pinellas County party chairman Tony DiMatteo, came to the Tampa event, and DiMatteo said he was never aware of any St. Pete event being planned.

McCain’s web site also showed an unspecified Pensacola event to be held Tuesday, which didn’t occur.

A campaign spokesman said no Pensacola or St. Pete events were ever planned.

As the end of June nears, and with it the end of the fundraising quarter, all the campaigns are preoccupied with cramming in as many fundraising events as possible, so as to be able to announce a big quarterly fundraising total.

McCain’s Florida stops reportedly were among 35 fundraising events he planned to hit during the month of June, hoping to raise $100,000 at each. McCain has been eager to improve on what his campaign acknowledged were disappointing fundraising results for the first quarter of 2007.