And so the 2010 fundraising cycle begins.

Via Andrew Malcolm we see that Obama’s first Presidential fundraiser is scheduled for March 25th, for the DNC. Currently, the Democrats are trying to lower expectations, which… doesn’t mean much of anything, really. They did a lot of that last year to heighten their eventual totals, and it worked out pretty well for them.

That being said, as of the end of 2008 the Democratic Party was significantly worse off financially than the Republican Party:

DNC $5,569,979 cash on hand, $5,000,000 debt
RNC $15,158,787 COH, $0 debt
DCCC $492,492 COH, $16,420,991 debt
NRCC $759,850 COH, $6,500,000 debt
DSCC $296,595 COH, $10,973,545 debt
NRSC $748,578 COH, $4,894,434 debt

…which is going to influence a lot of what the two parties are going to do this year. Expect a lot of Democrats scrambling for big-money donations this year. Expect a lot of Republicans scrambling, too; but the Democrats are going to find that their donors are going to impose more conditions on their donations. After all, they’re in a position to do more things if they want their money…

I look forward to the first-quarter reports with some interest.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.