Posted on 07/24/2007 7:56:03 AM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
From almost any angle, Republicans are facing a Democratic financial tsunami in 2008.
In the first six months of this year, Democratic federal candidates and the party's three national committees raised $381 million compared with the $291 million their counterparts collected. That amounts to a $90 million advantage and means that 57 percent of the total raised by all political candidates and committees has gone to the Democrats.
And that's the good news for Republicans.
When the cash on hand is added up for presidential, House and Senate candidates, as well as the party committees, the picture is even bleaker. Overall, Democrats reported having $314 million in cash compared with the Republicans' $190 million, which means that 62 percent of the political cash is now held in Democratic accounts.
What does that mean at political micro-levels? The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has a 10-1 cash advantage over its Republican adversary, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has a cash advantage that is three times greater than the National Republican Senatorial Committee's take.
In the presidential field, the Democrats' two top candidates -- Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) -- each have nearly as much money in the bank as the combined savings of the entire 2008 Republican field. The 10 Republicans running for president reported a combined total of $36 million cash on hand; Obama has $35 million and Clinton has $33 million available for the primary race.
"I cannot remember a time when the Democrats have had an advantage in the party committees and at the candidate level at the same time," said Michael J. Malbin, executive director of the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute.
Certainly, money alone doesn't win elections. Campaign trails leading to the Oval Office and to the lowly House echo with the tales of well-funded campaigns that met early ends. Among the most notable: Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean's 2004 presidential primary bid.
But money does create options, and at this pace, the Democrats see theirs growing, while the Republicans may well be losing some.
Take a look at the House. In January, newly selected DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.) laid out a plan to defend his vulnerable freshmen while simultaneously attacking Republicans who eked through last November. "If we continue the current pace, we will have the resources to fully support that strategy," he said. Meanwhile, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), who heads the National Republican Congressional Committee, started the year with quite a different set of priorities: Pay off the committee's debt and then start tucking money away for the campaign season.
Cole has made good on his promise. The committee has raised $29 million and spent $27 million. Today, it has got $2 million in the bank and $4 million in debts outstanding, according to its reports. Cole seems on track to move the committee's balance from red to black by year's end.
But that's when the hard slog begins, because the Democrats' edge isn't just the byproduct of high energy within their ranks. The long-feared Republican fundraising machine also appears to be in decline. While the Republican National Committee has maintained its dominance over the Democratic National Committee, raising $45 million to the DNC's $27 million, even that edge is on the lower end of historic patterns.
And consider this: When President Bush was running for reelection in 2004, his appearance at the RNC's annual spring gala raised $38.5 million. During last year's congressional campaign season, the presidential gala raised $17 million. This year, it raised $10.5 million.
In addition, the loss of control of Congress has stripped Republicans of one of their most lucrative fundraising assets: committee chairmanships. According to a Center for Inquiry study released last week, corporate donors have made a seismic shift since January toward the new Democratic chairmen. In the first six months of this year, political action committees donated $41 million to Democrats, compared with $24 million for Republicans. During the previous year, Republicans received $32 million in PAC contributions, compared with $22 million for the Democrats, the report concluded.
The presidential campaign season also looms as an obstacle to congressional fundraising. In private conversations, Republican fundraising experts dismiss the yawning gap between their primary field and the Democrats' roster. "When the nominee becomes clear, he will have all the resources he needs," said one longtime Republican operative.
History supports that notion. After scraping through hard times in the 2003 Democratic primary, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) found himself flush with cash -- even matching the Bush-Cheney machine -- when he swept the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries.
But that gush of money does not automatically extend to the congressional committees. Van Hollen said he spends plenty of time these days warning donors: "Do not take the House for granted. Things can change quickly."
Even if the money rolls in, managing it frugally can be crucial. In the 2006 cycle, the Republican House committee raised more than the Democrats. What both sides said helped tip the scales in many races was that the Democrats outspent the Republicans in the final weeks of that contentious campaign cycle.
How did they manage that? They had more cash in the bank.
Maybe the spineless gop has lost the support of there donors
I think this is more a demonstration of the maturity between the two parties. Republicans have a strong field, the Dems have Hillary, lightweight Obama, and thats about it.
I suspect when the primaries actually weed out the ‘also rans’ and gets us to a point where we KNOW who the candidate will be, the GOP coffers will open up.
Especially if Clinton is the Dem nominee.
Let see:
Bush on Immigration... +
Congress spending like a drunk sailor =
No money from me
Hillary would have to do something utterly moronic (not impossible) to lose the 2008 election at this point.
But it can buy revenge on the heartless B...(insert gender appropriate term for you).
All the money in the world can’t erase the truth about the Liberal’s anti-American, anti-military BS they’ve been spewing for the past 7 years. An idiot can quote their treasonous words that has come foaming out of their mouths. If the GOP can find someone with gonads, a spine, and a brain, they can use the Liberals corruption and dirty tricks for the past 7 years against them. It shouldn’t take billions to do that. Just brains. Sad, but there seems to be a severe shortage of them in DC as well.
If the Dems raise more money, this is a strong mark in their favor. People like them. They are in ascendancy. The future belongs to them.
If the GOP raises more money, this demonstrates their essentially evil character. They are bought and paid for. The party of the rich. Halliburton calls the shots.
You also have essentially irrelevant declared GOP candidates.
Guiliani is a democrat.
McCain is nuts.
Romney is too slick as a snake oil salesman
and then you have the
nutcases on the bottom.
NOBODY en mass is going to want to give them any money.
Mel Martinez going nuts to support amnesty killed party fundraising.
In general, FR has a problem in this regard.
It has been popular to swagger about and announce “not one penny to the RNC until this amnesty bill is killed”. And “I will give to individual candidates that I support, not the RNC that supports amnesty”.
Well, it is killed. There is nothing remaining on the table for the RNC to support.
But who is now going to ante up?
What organization is out there that will tell you which candidates far distant from your home deserve support, and provides an address to which to send a check? There is none. The talk about supporting candidates is well on its way to being nothing more than talk.
So think about all of the above when the RNC calls.
There's a reason for this: The GOP has supported positions in the past that do not resonate with Republicans. Amnesty is only part of the problem. Another nail in the coffin was the GOP's ineffectiveness when they did have power. Even now, when Hillary has already stated that she will be seeking a tax increase, the GOP sits there like a dolt and makes no political hay out of it.
The GOP politicians better wake up--and soon--to the fact that conservatives are totally pi$$ed and they need to see the GOP politicians start saying the right things or they are doomed.
Hillary can’t change who and what she is. No amount of money can hide the pure evil that oozes from her mouth. Freepers could run a better campaign than the leadership of the GOP. IMO, the leadership of the GOP are a group of spineless wimps who have been sucking up Liberal tricks for the past 7 years. It will be up to the base to defeat the Liberal human debris. If not, our country is in the toilet bowl waiting for the next terrorist attack. When that happens, the high rollers praising the high stock market can kiss their profits goodbye.
Yep. They haven’t been able to raise any money during the Shamnesty debacle. Give us a field of real Republicans, give us fiscal and social conservatives, strong on gun rights and shutting the borders, strong on the War on Terror, and we’ll open up our checkbooks again. I’m not sending money to the GOP until they stop acting like tax and spend liberals.
The Dhimis have a more extensive online fundraising apparatus, they also haven’t pissed on their base the way Jorge’ did, I cannot count the number of people who have said they put a “Jorge’ Peso” into a fundraising letter.
The retarded thing about that is, if the Dhimis sweep the table in 08 (we have more senators up for re election) don’t those folks think that that the “D”’s will pass amnesty? And tax hikes, and firearms bans?
I wonder what it breaks down to.
From a 2002 Rush Limbaugh article:
According to a new study by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, that moniker more appropriately belongs to the Democrats. “Republicans raised more than Democrats from individuals who contributed small and medium amounts of money during the 2002 election cycle,” the report notes, “but Democrats far outpaced Republicans among deep-pocketed givers.” Among donors who gave more than $200 but less than $1,000, Republicans enjoyed a substantial $68 million to $44 million edge over Democrats. The margin was closer among those individuals who gave $1,000 or more: The GOP took in $317 million, compared to the Democrats’ $307 million.
But among the fabulously wealthy, the Democrats cleaned house. Donors of $10,000 or more gave $140 million to Democrats, while only $111 million went to Republicans. Among those individuals who gave $100,000 or more, the Democrats raised $72 million compared to the Republicans’ $34 million. And when it comes to the millionaires’ club - those kicking in $1 million or more - the Democratic Party skunked the GOP, $36 million to $3 million. Needless to say, despite the near-parity in overall amounts - $384 million to the Republicans vs. $350 million to the Democrats - the number of individual donors to the GOP exceeded those to the Democratic Party by more than 40 percent.
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/menu/fat_cats_washington_times.guest.html
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/menu/democrats_get_more_money_from__rich_.guest.html
Alas...it appears that the spine and the brain aren't connected. If it were, the GOP could have made political hay out of thousands of liberal hiccups in recent years.
What? The democrats are the ones with all the money? Nevermind.
‘The Dhimis have a more extensive online fundraising apparatus, they also haven’t pissed on their base the way Jorge’ did, I cannot count the number of people who have said they put a “Jorge’ Peso” into a fundraising letter.’
Its telling those GOP candidates that are doing well have disavowed the Bush Administrations position on border security and Amnesty. I don’t think our anger with the Whitehouse will have any effect at all come 08, for the simple reason Bush won’t be on the ticket.
Thanks Jorge. Thanks alot.
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