Michele Bachmann is struggling to find big money donors to fund her run for the Republican presidential nomination, a former campaign manager says.
The Minnesota congresswoman, who has always been good at attracting donations from small donors, is having a hard time getting big-money Republican donors to take her seriously, political insider Ed Rollins told The New York Times.
Gov. Rick Perry of Texas appears to be cutting into her conservative base and Bachmann's recent comments linking a vaccine against the human papillomavirus to mental retardation have hurt her standing with big money donors, the newspaper said Friday.
"She has to verify the validity of the claim because these claims have enormous impact and people make medical decisions based on statements like these ...," said Dr. Steven Miles, a professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School.
"The results must be verified by three medical experts we both agree on, but if she fails to do so, she must donate $10,000 to a charity of my choice," Arthur L. Caplan, a professor of bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia told UPI.com.
"When you raise small-donor money, you go on Fox and say something more or less outrageous and that's what people contribute to," Rollins, who once headed up Bachmann's campaign, told the newspaper. But to attract big donors, "you've got to be a serious candidate with serious solutions."
