It’s that time again. Short version: RNC beat DNC, but DSCC & DCCC significantly outraised their counterparts – sufficiently so that the Democrats raised more overall for the month. When debt is factored in, the Democrats also went from being significantly behind on cash-on-hand to being slightly ahead. That being said: the RNC and NRCC are both reporting significant increases in small-person donors.
I would like to crunch the numbers for September, except that the DNC hasn’t released their monthly totals yet. Given that the Democrats had great months for both their Senatorial and Congressional campaigns, it’s going to take exceedingly little for the Democrats to have both more money raised and more cash on hand this month. The DNC had over 15 million in the bank last month; even assuming no change in that it’s enough to make for a significant COH advantage.
And I didn’t lose a buck-ten on every post that I wrote on the subject, either*.
A regular reader of mine might be forgiven for wondering why there’s any sort of surprised tone in this Washington Post article.
Democrats Are Jarred by Drop In Fundraising
Democratic political committees have seen a decline in their fundraising fortunes this year, a result of complacency among their rank-and-file donors and a de facto boycott by many of their wealthiest givers, who have been put off by the party’s harsh rhetoric about big business.
The trend is a marked reversal from recent history, in which Democrats have erased the GOP’s long-standing fundraising advantage. In the first six months of 2009, Democratic campaign committees’ receipts have dropped compared with the same period two years earlier.
After all, the people reading this post already know all of this. The ongoing fundraising situation has been regularly reported on here, here, here, here, here (all of which also compared points in this cycle to the equivalent points in the last one), here, and here – and also here for the state of the parties’ financial status at the end of 2008. Readers of both RedState and my own personal website have been kept apprised that Democratic fundraising has been consistently below last cycle’s expectations, and that the GOP has been overperforming (compared to largely media-driven expectations) – and that the amount of debt that the Democratic party has chosen to retain is warping its cash-on-hand numbers (which is something that the above article neglects to mention). So why is the Washington Post apparently discovering this now?
Oh, right: because I’m not a ‘journalist.’ Just somebody who was paying attention.
Wouldn’t you know it: I decide not to do anything consequential and the fundraising numbers become available. Short version: the GOP out-raised the Democrats for the first time since April; the NRSC beat out the DSCC for the second month; the NRCC continues to stay essentially tied with the DCCC; and the Democrats aren’t paying their debt down.
Short version: Democrats had a good month for the DNC – they beat out the RNC for a change – which was enough to let them end with a edge in amount raised and total cash-on-hand of a couple million. Fortunately, July fundraising for the congressional and senatorial committees was not a repeat of June’s: despite their having a significant edge in membership, the DSCC lagged the NRSC and the DCCC barely edged the NRCC. And the debt still remains significant on the Democrats’ side.
Short version: the Democrats had a good month in their Congressional/Senatorial Committee fundraising (double their previous month’s totals, as well as double their Republican counterparts); the RNC is back to outraising the DNC; cash on hand is at parity, except that the GOP is running with a debt that’s 1/10th of their total and the Democrats are running with one that’s half; and this is all very different than this time in 2007.
Let’s start with the NRCC’s incentive program for last-minute 2Q donations that they announced yesterday:
Every dollar you give through tomorrow, June 30th, will be quadrupled. So if you give $5, we’ll make it $20. If you can afford $25, we’ll make it $100.
That’s four times the impact of a normal contribution, and it will be put to immediate use replacing Pelosi’s puppets in Congress with principled, conservative Republicans.
Yup, it’s that time again. Short version: the DNC beat the RNC last month, thanks to a Presidential fundraiser; but the NRSC actually raised more money last month than the DSCC; and the DCCC raised only about 200K more than the NRCC. While the cash-on-hand edge for the GOP is less than it was last month’s, it’s because the Democrats are still not retiring their debt, which is 4x the GOP’s.
The National Republican Congressional Committee raised more than $6 million for tonight’s annual March Dinner, surpassing its goal for the event.
95 percent of the GOP House Conference contributed to the event, the committee announced.
For those following at home, that will mostly wipe out the NRCC’s existing debt, assuming that they apply it accordingly; it’s also about a million more than their goal of $5 million. This dinner’s usually a good fundraiser for the GOP; in fact. The Democrats’ first fundraising dinner is of course tomorrow, and is for the DNC: President Obama will be the highlight of the evening.
