Intellectual Property Law

Texas congressman Ron Paul rallied his supporters via YouTube Monday night, urging them to keep working to push his presidential campaign forward despite his lackluster performance at the polls.

The Associated Press estimates that Paul has 14 delegates, and CNN estimates that he has 16. He needs 1,191 to win the Republican nomination for president.

Paul also called for supporters to mount a march on Washington to revive media interest interest in his campaign.

"Our numbers keep growing, and the funds keep coming in," he said in his 14-and-a-half minute long online video message. "I've said all along the campaign is going to continue as long as there are new people coming into the campaign, and we're going to be able to be financed."

Patrick Semmens, a spokesman for the campaign, says that Paul is still receiving donations of $15,000 to $20,000 a day, and that the campaign has a total of $5 million. Paul is still running his live campaign donation ticker on his site, which he's also ported over to his congressional re-election campaign site.

Some supporters are redirecting their funds toward Paul's congressional re-election effort in Texas (his presidential and congressional campaigns are funded and run separately.) He's running against a local Texas city councilman, Chris Peden, who is running on a more socially-conservative Republican platform.

Paul's rambling Monday night message pleaded with supporters to keep up the momentum. 

"It's your responsibility to keep going and keep fighting and keep getting those delegates," he urged  viewers. "We need everyone to stay engaged and stay active and not be disillusioned and not to think this is all over ... We can't drop the ball right now."

To recapture media attention, he suggested that Paul supporters should hold a rally in Washington, DC.

"We ought to make a grand display," he said. "We ought to have a true march to show what our numbers are, and this is risky, just as it was rather risky for us to put right on our web site as the dollars were coming in."

But "it would send a powerful message where the media can't ignore us," he added.

The Houston Chronicle recently reported that Paul had downsized his staff from 150 to 50 and moved some of them to his congressional campaign.

Semmens said that the cutbacks were normal, and that the presidential campaign no longer needs as many staff now that it's gotten past Super Tuesday.