Those of you with no lives may be counting the days until October 15, the final pre-election deadline for filing campaign finance reports. I’ll certainly be there for the Big Release Monday afternoon, and will be posting reports on this site.

But yesterday, Randy Brock gave reporters a bit of a preview — and it wasn’t a pretty picture. Peter Hirschfeld of the Vermont Press Bureau ()behind the Herald/T-A paywall):

Brock said the fundraising totals he’ll reveal next Monday… will show totals on par with what he’s raised in previous reports.

The previous reports, as you may recall, were consistently underwhelming, well short of the pace that Vermont Pundit Laureate Eric Davis has declared as necessary to remain competitive with Gov. Shumlin. What’s worse, his campaign is continuing to spend money faster than it’s coming in. Indeed, if you add up his recent media buys, his spending pace has quickened.

He said he’s considering another personal loan to the campaign – he contributed $300,000 of his own money in July – but that he’d prefer to “shake some trees” elsewhere.

Eeeuuuugh.  

D’ya think there are any likely trees he hasn’t shaken already? He’s gonna have to dig deep into his own pocket in order to keep his campaign going. And Shumlin hasn’t really even started advertising yet.

As for his strategery for the stretch run:

Brock said his campaign will be targeting political moderates he believes can be swayed to his side.

Hey, brilliant! Maybe he’s finally realized what I explained way back in May — he has to appeal to the center if he’s to have any hope of winning.

Too bad he’s spent the entire campaign pandering to the far right.