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Why Aren't Republican Donors Giving?
Townhall ^ | 7/24/07 | Hugh Hewitt

Posted on 07/25/2007 5:44:45 AM PDT by Valin

Politico's Jeanne Cummings has a story on the dollar gap that is opening between the Dems and Republicans. It is large and growing, and a complete turnaround from the ordinary situation. So, what is going on?

There are three answers.

First, the top tier GOP presidential candidates are equally matched and there's a lot of money on the sidelines waiting for the main event to begin. When a strong frontrunner emerges who begins to take the campaign to the Dems, especially on the war, the contributions will flow. If Romney is that nominee, expect some serious 527 efforts as well funded by his extraordinarily successful colleagues in the world of investment banking. Rudy Giuliani, too, will not lack for cash if he is the nominee.

The disparity in cash on hand between the campaign committees of Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate are much more significant, and harder for the GOP to fix. The Dems are enthusiastic about adding to their majority, and recognize that if they can keep if through this cycle it will be theirs for some time. Though pressed by the anti-war fringe into absurd ploys and defeatist rhetoric, the Dems can count on their foot soldiers in the unions and the groups to keep sending in the small contributions, whether by payroll deduction or on a voluntary basis.

The Republicans have a double disadvantage.

Quick, name one GOP House candidate challenging a Democratic freshman. That's the first problem. The House GOP has done almost nothing to present the face of the comeback, and until it does, don't expect a lot of enthusiasm or contributions from the base. Show me 20 Republican challengers, including a bunch of vets with service in Iraq and Afghanistan who are running on a platform of victory, and the House coffers will start to fill.

The problem in the Senate isn't a lack of candidates, it is that some of the candidates are not merely old and uninpsiring, some, like Orgeon's Gordon Smith, have gone over to the defeatist ranks. Others like Domenici of New Mexico and Warner of Virginia sit on the fence. There is simply no way that even the most committed Republican activists are going to give money to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and see it work for Smith's re-election, or the re-election of other Republicans not committed to victory in Iraq.

When the GOP's senate challengers to defeatist incumbent Democrats emerge in Montana, Louisiana, Iowa, and Arkansas to join Bob Schaeffer in Colorado, there will be some rallying to them if they run on a victory platform, but not until then, and then only into the campaigns of the individuals. I got another e-mail from Senator John Ensign today, a good conservative who chairs the NRSC, asking me to contribute to the Committee to help turn back Hillary Clinton's assault on talk radio. Now, you'd think I would respond to that, right? Not a chance, because I know that my contribution would end up helping Gordon Smith. Keeping the Fairness Doctrine at bay means almost nothing compared to a loss in Iraq that allows al Qaeda to establish a new home base, and trying to appeal to donors in any way that ignores the debate over the war will fail. When the GOP caucus in the Senate serves notice that it won't be sending money to the defeatist rump in its midst, then donations will pick up. Until then, save the stamp, or the e-mail.


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: donors; fundraising; gop; hewitt; hughhewitt
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To: DManA

In fairness, the Log Cabin take over of the GOP started in 1997.


61 posted on 07/25/2007 6:26:12 AM PDT by Calpernia (Breederville.com)
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To: Valin

Why aren’t they giving? If the party hadn’t “Bushed” up its majority and caved to every “Bushing” issue that the Dims brought up, the GOP coffers would be overflowing by now. But instead the GOP was content to back a “Bushed” up Rumsfeld strategy at the beginning of Iraq. It backed the “Bushing” No Child and prescription drugs bills, it witnessed a really “Bushed” up mess in the aftermath of a hurricane knocking the “Bush” out of New Orleans, but when it was obviously the fault of a Dim mayor and governor, it saw a weak “Bushing” explanation from the Oval Office about how the “Bushing” mess occurred. Above all, it saw a really bad “Bushing” issue over illegal immigration and the “Bushed” up fingerprints of the president’s all over it. So no wonder they are having trouble, most folks are just saying “Bush” you and hanging up when the GOP calls.


62 posted on 07/25/2007 6:27:06 AM PDT by meandog (Bush's name now synonymous with every bad word known.)
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To: Heartland Mom

I make no apologies for my suggestion of Tom DeLay being head of the RNC. I could care less if he called anybody names, he has a spine and he knows how to play rough. Until this party gets people in it who know how to fight dirty and will fight dirty it will never win against the Dems. I’ve learned over the years you play by the rules, you lose.


63 posted on 07/25/2007 6:27:10 AM PDT by Plains Drifter (If guns kill people, wouldn't there be a lot of dead people at gun shows?)
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To: LottieDah
Republicans aren’t donating to “teach” a lesson. Unfortunately for the U.S.A. that lesson will cost us dearly if Hillary Clinton is elected.

That is exactly the kind of crap that got us where we are. "If you don't vote for the Repo filth, then you will get perverted Demo filth." Worse yet, "If you don't vote for the devil's representative, you will get the devil himself." Here is another warning, "If the Repo rank and file don't demand excellence, then they will get the same filth no matter who wins." Why does it matter whether Hillary or some Repo Sicko gives our country to socialist dictators, illegal immigrants, Wall Street Bankers and Global financial syndicates? In either case, the country is still lost. The only hope for our future is to demand excellence. Without it we are lost.

64 posted on 07/25/2007 6:28:32 AM PDT by ghostrider
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To: Calpernia

What was unfair about my post?


65 posted on 07/25/2007 6:28:34 AM PDT by DManA
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To: w1andsodidwe

I’m starting to look at the GOP the same way I do public schools. I don’t know if it can be “fixed” It may be too late.


66 posted on 07/25/2007 6:29:15 AM PDT by CindyDawg
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To: DManA

When Kit Bond voted for the amnesty bill, that was all she wrote for me.


67 posted on 07/25/2007 6:29:25 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (BTUs are my Beat.)
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To: Valin

I gave. I mailed a bunch of pesos to the Wisconsin GOP last week. ;)


68 posted on 07/25/2007 6:30:58 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (Save The Earth. It's The Only Planet With Chocolate.)
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To: LottieDah
Wrong! Republicans are not donating because Republicans don't trust the RNC or the President aside from the war. Republicans as a party treated Republicans the donors like serfs who need to obey their masters in the WH and Senate. Republicans called Republican donors bigots, racists, and vigilantes while calling illegals the backbone of America. I am not giving not to teach a lesson but because I really can't consider myself a Republican as much as I do a Conservative. Get Conservatives in the leadership positions in the RNC and maybe I will give.

I have given to Duncan Hunter and I will probably give to Cornyn when the time comes. My Congressman Sam Johnson will get some cash if he wants it.

The "hillary might be President" scare tactic is actually hilarious now, may as well throw in the "Judges and gays will marry" lines too.

69 posted on 07/25/2007 6:33:26 AM PDT by normy (Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.)
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To: Valin

Dunno.
Maybe ‘cause so may high-profile ‘Pubbies are actin’ like Democrats?


70 posted on 07/25/2007 6:34:15 AM PDT by Little Ray (Rudy Guiliani: If his wives can't trust him, why should we?)
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To: DManA

I like to keep Clinton’s name attached to events from his administration. People seem to forget.


71 posted on 07/25/2007 6:35:47 AM PDT by Calpernia (Breederville.com)
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To: dmw
You do have a nice couple of Senators there but don’t forget my boy Cornyn.
72 posted on 07/25/2007 6:35:53 AM PDT by normy (Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.)
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To: MamaTexan

You win the prize!!!! You nailed it, your message has to get thru The thick heads at RNC.


73 posted on 07/25/2007 6:36:12 AM PDT by Plains Drifter (If guns kill people, wouldn't there be a lot of dead people at gun shows?)
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To: DManA
Who would give to a party that supports Arlen Specter.

Precisely. When Democrats abandon their principles for pure political calculation, their support does not waver. When Republicans do, as in the case with Specter vs Toomey, it crushes the support from their base. Abandoning Toomey and supporting Specter was a Faustian deal Bush and others struck, and look what they got for their troubles.

74 posted on 07/25/2007 6:36:39 AM PDT by Tennessean4Bush (An optimist believes we live in the best of all possible worlds. A pessimist fears this is true.)
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To: Valin

75 posted on 07/25/2007 6:37:45 AM PDT by Atlas Sneezed ("We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts; I support them, I won't chip away at them" -Mitt Romney)
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To: normy

Do candidates have to share any individual donations with the party? Do you know?


76 posted on 07/25/2007 6:38:09 AM PDT by CindyDawg
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To: CindyDawg

GRRRRRRRRRRRRReat Post!!!!!!!!!!

RE#66


77 posted on 07/25/2007 6:38:31 AM PDT by Plains Drifter (If guns kill people, wouldn't there be a lot of dead people at gun shows?)
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To: meandog

That says it all - quick & simple. “Bush” Bush’s party of globalism.


78 posted on 07/25/2007 6:40:56 AM PDT by ghostrider
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To: tioga
I told them NOT one dollar for them in Washington because I can still remember the immigration fiasco when so many of the GOP elites thought they would pass that disastrous bill WITH the dems.

I agree. When the Wall is built, I'll contribute.

79 posted on 07/25/2007 6:42:28 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
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To: Valin
Who in their right mind would donate to a party whose chairman is Mel 'La Raza' Martinez? In my state, Independents can vote in either Primary Election. I'm so damned sick of the RNC, NRCC, NRSC, President Bush, and some prominent Republican candidates and current members of Congress that I don't know why I'm still in this damned party anymore. I know its a tired phrase, but I didn't leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party left me. I'm this || close to tearing up my registration card and going Independent. The only thing keeping me from doing it is that I see some hope in my own State Republican Party with the recent election of Randy Pullen (conservative, organizer of Proposition 200, Minuteman Project member, etc.) as the party chairman. But he's got the RINO's all riled up and they've formed a shadow party and are doing everything they can to undermine him and the state party. If they succeed and retake power here, then I won't hesitate to switch my registration.

The only donations the RNC has received from me lately are the George Bush Pesos. They don't seem to be getting the message.

I've been a Republican most of my voting life. I voted for Ronald Reagan for President. I'm a Precinct Committeeman and I've served as a State Delegate. I was elected President of a conservative Republican Club. I've served on several Republican campaigns to include a congressional campaign. But if the party doesn't get its collective sh** together and stop betraying its traditional values and its conservative base, then I'll have no choice but to let it drive itself off the cliff that it seems so damned determined to.

80 posted on 07/25/2007 6:44:50 AM PDT by Spiff (Rudy Giuliani Quote (NY Post, 1996) "Most of Clinton's policies are very similar to most of mine.")
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