The Note's Sneak Peek:
June 26, 2007— -- With four days to go until the end of the second quarter, instead of filling his own campaign coffers, Fred Thompson picks up some political chits in Columbia, S.C., on Wednesday by raising money for the South Carolina GOP.
The $50 per person luncheon fundraiser sold out on Friday and is expected to draw more than 300 people. Prior to Thompson's open press luncheon remarks, he holds a $500 per person roundtable discussion for state party contributors which will be closed press. According to the GOP power broker who will introduce Thompson at Wednesday's lunch, there is "a lot of interest and excitement" in the Law & Order actor despite his late start.
"He adds a sexiness to the race," Katon Dawson, the chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, tells ABC News. "A lot of people know the senator from television. Sometimes people get very deep about who wins when it really comes down to: 'Who do you know? Do I like you? What do you stand for?'"
Dawson sees South Carolina as "still anybody's game." He predicts, however, that "somewhere between now and Labor Day, one or two" of the Republican presidential candidates will start "breaking out of the pack substantially" as GOP activists look for a candidate who can hold the White House in a year in which the party has a "big hill to climb" after eight years in power.
While Thompson is in the Palmetto State, Mitt Romney is in New York for a noontime fundraiser followed by a 7:00 pm ET dinner with young professionals.
Romney is not alone in raising coin on Wednesday: Rudy Giuliani raises money in Pittsburgh, John McCain raises money in New York and New Jersey, Sam Brownback does it in California, and Jim Gilmore does it in New York.
Rather than raising money, Tommy Thompson sticks to pressing the flesh in Iowa.
As for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton delivers 12:30 pm ET foreign policy remarks to former Defense Secretary Bill Perry's Center for New American Security.
Clinton will be introduced by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The event takes place in Washington, D.C., at the Willard InterContinental Hotel.
