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I never thought I’d say this, but: No More Contributions!

Okay, let me explain.

I’ve been cobbling together this site on pennies for just shy of three years. And contributions for the general support of TPM are as needed as ever. So please keep contributing. But yesterday I announced that TPM would be covering the New Hampshire primary on location for the ten days leading up to the vote, and that the trip would be funded by reader contributions ear-marked just for this purpose.

My plan was that today I’d put up a funding target amount and perhaps one of those thermometers that they use at fundraisers to track the progress toward that goal. But things went a little more quickly than I’d anticipated.

In fact, the response has been literally overwhelming.

The original post went up at 3:08 PM yesterday afternoon. And as of 2:49 PM today we had already raised $4864.00.

That is, certainly, more than is necessary.

The point here was never to hit the Granite State in, you know, princely Howard Fineman-fashion — you know, gold-plated quill pen, vellum notebook, personal food-taster, etc. All that I need is transportation to Manchester, a room at a mid-range hotel, a rental car to drive around the state, and some money for gas and miscellaneous expenses.

With the jacked-up hotel rates in Manchester in primary season, probably just the hotel and the rental car for ten days, plus taxes, will likely run a couple grand.

So here’s what I intend to do. I’m swamped working on a couple stories today. So this is tentative. But here’s my plan. I’m going to put together a budget. Then I’m going to go through the list of contributors and find the people who sent in contributions after the amount required under the budget had been reached. I’m going to contact those people individually. And they’ll have the choice of either having their money refunded or having it put into the general fund for the support of the site.

In any case, if you’re itching to contribute please do so early and often for the general support of the site. But we already have plenty for the New Hampshire trip. And to all the supporters of the site — financial and otherwise — a very sincere ‘thank you.’