Free Republic

<p>WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney got up yesterday morning, boarded Air Force Two and flew to Columbia, S.C., where he rode in a motorcade to a private home, shook hands, and posed for pictures with 150 donors at a luncheon. There he raised $300,000 for the Bush-Cheney reelection committee before flying home.</p>

With less than three weeks to go before Election Day, the Democratic Party has a major problem: the party's fundraising operation is lagging far behind the GOP campaign cash juggernaut. According to Staten Island political analyst Kevin Collins: • Since January, Democratic hard money contributions (money given directly to a candidate) have seriously lagged behind even their 1996 levels. • While Democratic National Committee (DNC) hard money contributions have slowed to a virtual halt, Republican National Committee (RNC) contributions have swelled by more than 19 percent. • In just the two months of August and September, the RNC collected more...