Are Anti-Israel Claims Hurting Campbell's War Chest?

UPDATED: Despite only entering the race in January, Tom Campbell’s campaign has already raised $1 million in his bid to win the GOP senatorial primary in California. But while he has caught up with his opponents, his fundraising has dropped significantly since his opponents began criticizing his record on Israel.

Yesterday, Tom Campbell’s campaign announced that they had surpassed the $1 million fundraising mark in his bid to win the GOP senatorial primary in California. This news though can be spun both positively and negatively. On the one hand, the numbers vindicate Campbell’s decision to leave the California gubernatorial race. In the two months since switching to the senatorial primary, he’s raised as much as he did in twelve months running for governor. Kipling Hagopian, a co-chair of Campbell’s finance committee, explained the switch:

Back in December, Tom called a number of his long-time friends and supporters, myself among them, and asked them, ‘Should I switch’? …It was becoming increasingly clear that it was going to be tough because his two opponents, Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner, were both very wealthy and had declared their intent to put sizeable amounts of their personal wealth into their campaigns.

Hagopian noted, however, that "the most important factor [for the switch] was that the Obama administration's attempts to pass health care, cap and trade, an increase in taxes and otherwise expand government, had created an urgent need to elect more fiscally responsible senators who could stop bad legislation." Now that Campbell has switched over to the Senate race, his current level of fundraising puts him on par with primary opponents Carly Fiorina and Chuck DeVore, who have both raised similar amounts despite having four or five more months to fundraise. On the other hand, the latest fundraising numbers may be an indicator of how donors feel about the anti-Israel allegations lobbed at him in early February. Campbell’s campaign announced in February that they had raised $700,000 in one month. It’s taken them an additional month to raise the remaining $300,000 needed to hit the million dollar mark, which means that fundraising dropped by more than half in February. The Campbell campaign has tried its best to address the anti-Israel allegations head-on, challenging Fiorina and DeVore to an exciting and heated radio debate on the Eric Hogue show. [Fspan style="color: #ff6600;">F Coverage<] The true measure of Campbell’s success in fighting off concerns about his record will be whether he reaches his fundraising goals. When he switched to the Senate race, his campaign predicted that they would fundraise $5 million before the end of the GOP primary. Reached for comment, Campbell spokesman James Fisfis said that their fundraising target was still set at $5 million. Fisfis also dismissed the suggestion that the drop-off had anything to do with the anti-Israel allegations, telling FrumForum:

There is no drop off – it just seems that way since we had a great surge [of] what some call ‘splash donors’… Events are lining up very heavy for late March and through the primary. So we’re still on target.

Update: Campbell spokesperson James Fisfis writes us to point out that in his original email exchange with FrumForum, he said that he predicted a total fundraising haul of "at least" $5 million. Although this CQ Piece has one Campbell adviser placing their fundraising goal at $5 million, Fisfis says that that their official goal, reported here, is actually between $7 million and $10 million. Fisfis emphasizes that their "target hasn't changed".