Dems Crushing GOP in Congressional Fundraising http://blog.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/?hpid=topnews In a secure, undisclosed beach location for this entire week, Capitol Briefing was determined not to even glance at a computer screen. But after 96 or so straight hours of overcast, rainy skies on the Eastern seaboard, strange things happen and pretty soon you find yourself looking at the Federal Election Commission's Web site. And one thing jumps out from the latest FEC filings: House Republicans are flat broke, and there's no sign of better cash days in the near term. Less than 15 months from Election Day, the House Republican campaign arm -- the National Republican Congressional Committee -- continues to effectively run a negative balance. The committee has just $1.97 million in its accounts, as of July 31, according to FEC reports it filed this week. But the NRCC is also sitting on a debt of $4.1 million. The committee, which has been a key financial arm for attack ads and get-out-the-vote ground troops in previous elections, continues to raise money at a respectable clip, collecting $32 million for the year so far. But it also continues to spend money at a rapid pace, with $31.5 million in disbursements in the first seven months of 2007. A chunk of that went to paying down the debt -- which stood at more than $14.3 million at the end of last year. But even setting aside those debt payments, the NRCC still doled out more than $20 million. On the other side of the aisle, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is awash in cash. It has $21.3 million in its accounts, for a better than 10 to 1 cash edge over the NRCC, and it has out-raised its GOP counterpart through July. The DCCC raised more than $40.5 million so far this year. The Democratic committee has $3.5 million in leftover debt from 2006, which was down from $9.3 million at the end of last year. What's worse for Republicans, the FEC just issued a report on fund-raising by individual candidates for the House and Senate, and the vast majority of the money is flowing to Democrats: House Democratic candidates raised $94.2 million through June 30, while House GOP candidates took in just $63.6 million. The trend lines for House Republicans are particularly troublesome because the NRCC raised less than $2.6 million in July, its worst month of the year. The DCCC, by contrast, raised $4.1 million in July, which was the exact median month for receipts for the committee so far this year. On the Senate side, things are also bleak for Republicans but their long-term financial standing looks a little brighter. The NRSC has just $6.5 million cash on hand, but it has no debt. That means that every dollar collected from here on out can go toward 2008 races. Still, the GOP's Senate campaign arm has been out-raised nearly 2 to 1 by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee: The NRSC brought in $18.1 million through July, compared to $34.5 million for the DSCC. The DSCC is sitting on $20.6 million in its accounts. It has $4 million in debts from last year's campaign. Here, the new FEC report should be particularly troubling for Republicans. The most active fund-raisers this early in the cycle are usually incumbents. There are 21 incumbent Republicans up for election in 2008, compared to 12 for the Democrats, with one already announced open seat in Colorado. Yet individual Democratic Senate candidates, in the first six months of 2007, raised $47.6 million, compared to just $33 million for GOP Senate candidates. Combined, the financial numbers for individual campaigns and the party committees are a double-dose of bad financial news for Republicans. As The Fix has previously noted, these cash advantages for the Democratic congressional committees are critical because the national party committees -- the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee -- will be devoting virtually all their resources to the race for the White House. Therefore, the continued tepid performance by the DNC despite such overwhelming financial momentum among Democrats won't make a dime's worth of difference in determining who controls Congress in 2009. (In midterms, the DNC and RNC have played varying roles in congressional contests, with the RNC usually chipping in far more than the DNC.) The DNC is sitting on $3.9 million, while the RNC held a better than 4 to 1 financial edge at the end of July, with $16.1 million on hand.
If the Dems end up smoking the GOP in the House, that would be a very bad thing. Hopefully they find a way to stumble and just narrowly increase their majority. An overconfident and overambitious Dem president in 2009 with a big majority in both houses isn't what the country needs.
Bribe the party that's going to be in power. There's no point in throwing cash at candidates who aren't going to have the capability of extending favors to you. I'd be willing to be many of the 'donors' for the Democrats were the same organizations who 'donated' to the Republicans in the last go-round. ****ing whores.
Fixed that for you! I've got a feeling that Obama or Hillary White House with a compliant Congress would make Iraq, No Child Left Behind, Medicare Drug Bill, et al look like child's play. They both seem intent on even further Nationalization, Globalization, and destruction of the remnants Free Republic. Especially Hillary. She's like Cheney with lipstick.
I don't know the breakdown of donors to the DCCC and the DSCC, but here's the most recent breakdown for the Presidential candidates: My guess is that people are so fed up with the Republican Party and this administration that the numbers for the DNC, DSCC, and DCCC will also show an increase in individual small donors. We should all be for that because the lesser their percentage is, the less of a hold the big money guys have.
Fixed that for you. [I removed Iraq]. Interesting comment on Hillary and Cheney. You may be on to something.
I hope so, we need to nationalize as many wing nut libertarians as possible - their flesh and shrieking are rich in vital nutrients that we require for sustenance.
