McDonnell’s cash woes? Oy vey!

The Republican convention in Richmond next month is supposed to be former Attorney General Bob McDonnell's bar mitzvah -- some food, a bit to drink, lotsa flash.

But for McDonnell, entering the political equivalent of manhood as his party's nominee for governor is a surprisingly low-dollar affair.

Like those schlocky floral centerpieces that end up in Mrs. What's-her-stein's living room the morning after the big party, McDonnell's fundraising appears to be wilting.

National Republicans are worried. They're sending in what looks like a rescue team. It includes Caitlan Schroder, former chief fundraiser of the Republican Governors Association.

At McDonnell headquarters, the news isn't the announcement that he has more cash than the three Democrats who are burning through millions for a shot at him. It's what is being whispered:

That finance director Christi Smith, previously a fundraiser for McDonnell in Northern Virginia, has been replaced with Paige Hahn, who has worked for Newt Gingrich, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Republican National Committee.

Unopposed for the nomination, McDonnell trails in the money hunt compared with the party's candidate from four years ago, then-Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, who faced minor competition in a primary.

From January 2006, when McDonnell was sworn in as AG, until the close of the latest reporting period on March 31, he has raised just over $6.5 million, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, an online watchdog of money in politics.

For the same period, between 2002 and 2005, Kilgore generated $7.8 million.

It can be argued that McDonnell lags Kilgore by far more than $1.3 million. At this point in the'05 cycle, Kilgore had not received a penny from the RGA, which already has steered $1.2 million to McDonnell.

Thus, that handout from RGA could be perceived as an artificial enhancement; that roughly one-third of his cash on hand can be attributed to a single donor.

It's not the first time one Republican sugar daddy has propped up -- bailed out? -- McDonnell.

Running for attorney general in 2005, he raised $6 million, of which $2 million came from the Republican State Leadership Committee, one of those murky entities that refused to disclose the source of its money.

Most of the committee's cash went to mail and TV in the closing weeks of the squeaker race with Democrat Creigh Deeds, now a candidate for governor.

The crummy economy is not helping McDonnell or any candidate. But that excuse only goes so far. The full sting of the recession, under way nationally since December 2007, wasn't felt in Virginia until last summer.

Plus, it's been a year since Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling ceded the nomination to McDonnell, freeing McDonnell to -- potentially -- harvest checks from deep-pocketed Republican donors holding back until someone passing for a winner came forward.

But that doesn't appear to be happening. McDonnell may not be getting traction with Kilgore's biggest donors.

There are 34 GOP check-writers who contributed $5,000 or more to each candidate through their respective March 31 filing periods. But there are about 100 more who gave at least that much to Kilgore who have yet to do so for McDonnell.

He has his work cut out for him.

And this is supposed to be his bar mitzvah? Oy vey!

Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 6496814 or . Watch his video column Thursdays on TimesDispatch.com. Listen to his analysis Fridays at 8:33 a.m. on WCVE radio (88.9 FM).