Carson puts public campaign events on hold

GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson is stepping away from the campaign trail to promote his new book, “A More Perfect Union,” according to ABC News.

{mosads}The network reported late Wednesday that Carson is scheduled for over 20 private fundraisers during the next 14 days but has no public campaign appearances planned. It added that Carson’s last public campaign event was on Oct. 2. He is scheduled to appear during the GOP’s third presidential debate in Boulder, Colo., on Oct. 28.

ABC News said Carson is keeping his campaign separate from his book’s promotional efforts to avoid questions about campaign assets aiding its sales.

“It’s a question of co-mingling from the corporate standpoint to the Federal Election Commission standpoint, so it’s just better to avoid any bad appearance,” said spokesman Doug Watts.

Carson personally benefits from purchases of his tome, ABC News added, while his campaign does not directly receive profits from the book.

Watts said Wednesday that the retired neurosurgeon is making up for his freeze on public campaign stops with an active presence in the media.

“He’s been on TV,” he said. “I think Wednesday through Friday I got sick of looking at him on TV, so it’s pretty hard to suggest he’s not out and about whether you make a distinction of it as a campaign thing or not.”

“Most people at home just see Ben Carson out there talking about something that is or isn’t important to them,” Watts added.

Carson’s campaign reported late last month that it had raised over $20 million during the third quarter. That haul raised its total to more than $31 million from 600,000 donations and 363,000 unique donators.