NASHVILLE, TN – Democrat Gubernatorial Candidate Mike McWherter made headlines earlier this week when the Associated Press reported he was only able to raise $103,000 in the first quarter of the year. When asked about his lagging numbers, a McWherter campaign spokesman responded that McWherter hasn’t made fundraising a priority.

“This is a poor attempt to explain really bad fundraising numbers,” said Tennessee Republican Party Executive Director Gregory Gleaves. “It is laughable the McWherter campaign would imply that fundraising isn’t a priority – especially considering the substantial numbers our Republican candidates have been reporting. Mike McWherter’s meager fundraising isn’t from his lack of trying; it is attributed to Tennesseans’ lack of confidence in his ability to effectively govern our state.”

Following is part of a Q&A session with a McWherter spokesman reported by the Nashville Scene in which he was asked about the campaign’s lagging fundraising numbers.

Q: So he hasn’t been raising money because he hasn’t been trying?

Kopp: He always spends time every day making some calls, but quite honestly there hasn’t been a huge intense effort in the last couple months to do it, and it’s frankly because the Democratic field has been pretty thin and it just got really thin. We’ve been watching what the Democrats in the field have been doing and their fundraising wasn’t getting off the ground, so we didn’t feel the pressure to focus all our attention on raising money. When everyone sort of dropped out, the idea was to get all this retail politicking out of the way. …

Q: Are you sure you want to stick to this story because this sounds like some pretty seriously ridiculous spin?

Kopp: It sounds like ridiculous spin?

Q: You’re telling me that he’s not trying to raise money?

Kopp: I didn’t say he wasn’t trying to raise money. I said it hasn’t been the primary focus the last few months.