NRCC Broke, DCCC Flush
The Republican congressional fundraising arm is in debt while its Democratic counterpart is rolling in dough, ABC’s Avni Patel reports.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) reported $1.6 million in cash on hand and $4 million in debts as of Aug. 31. The group helps bankroll House campaigns for GOP candidates. Its counterpart, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, reported $22.1 million, more than 10 times its Republican counterpart.
[…]
Senate Republicans are in a state of relative poverty, also. The National Republican Senatorial Campaign has just over $7 million on hand, according to the new filings. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has more than $20 million.
Bad news for Republicans, presumably reflecting both dissatisfaction with the party and the betting forecasts of big donors. Disillusionment over the war, immigration policy, various scandals, and a general malaise would seem to explain much of the problem.
There is, however, this:
While the Democrats’ new congressional majority appears to have sapped much of the GOP lawmakers’ fundraising power, its national group, the Democratic National Committee, still lags behind its Republican counterpart. The RNC reported raising $57.3 million so far this year, with $16 million on hand, while the Democratic National Committee raised $36.8 million so far this year, with $4.7 million on hand.
The numbers don’t quite seem to add up, although the asymmetry of the reporting here makes doing the math impossible. They report the debt of the NRCC but not the DCCC and they report amount raised for the RNC/DNC but not the congressional arms.
And why are people donating so much to the DCCC and DSCC rather than to the DNC while those trends are reversed for the Republicans? All the polling I’ve seen indicates that Democrats are much happier with their presidential choices than Republicans but very frustrated with their congressional representatives, who have failed to carry out the agenda they ran on last November.
UPDATE: Commenter Grewgils dug up the numbers.
DCCC has 22.1 on hand with debt of 3.1 for a net of 19.
RNCC has 01.6 on hand with debt of 4.0 for a net of -2.4.
Total receipts YTD DCCC 44 vs RNCC 34.6.[…]
The RNC, which has outraised the DNC in every month this year, has taken in $57.3 million for the year and began September with $16 million in the bank and no debts. The DNC raised $36.8 million in the first eight months of 2007, banked $4.7 million and has $2 million in debts.
Which gives DNC + DCCC 26.8 – 5.1 = 21.7
and gives the RNC + NRCC 17.6 – 4.0 = 13.6
YTD total for DNC + DCCC = 80.8
YTD total for RNC + RNCC = 91.9
So, the Republicans are raising significantly more money overall and roughly 80% of what the Democrats are even on the Congressional side, which is less stark than the ABC report suggests. The cash on hand differences are interesting, though, since they suggest the GOP is spending much more money.
I would suggest that those who fund campaigns, the big money people are, in most cases, agnostic on which party is in power. The mostly irrelevant political game is played out in the court of public opinion and the ebb and flow of the “mob” is carefully fleshed out and the horses are backed. For the power players it’s much more important to back a winner then it is to back party / ideology / what have you. While there are some groups who are shut out of one party or another (mostly issue groups, but some industries as well), most just want to be on the donor list of the winner when it comes time to settle the bill.
The Democrats are the safe bet right now, so there you are.
I believe the numbers came from here.
DCCC has 22.1 on hand with debt of 3.1 for a net of 19.
RNCC has 01.6 on hand with debt of 4.0 for a net of -2.4.
Total receipts YTD DCCC 44 vs RNCC 34.6.
Also from CQPolitics.com
Which gives DNC + DCCC 26.8 – 5.1 = 21.7
and gives the RNC + NRCC 17.6 – 4.0 = 13.6
YTD total for DNC + DCCC = 80.8
YTD total for RNC + RNCC = 91.9
Hope that helps.
And recent polling suggests that they will have to continue to out spend Democrats in order to even stay competitive. This may be a problem if they max out their donor pool too early, can they really sustain their fund raising gap until the elections? Does anyone have numbers on the average donation per donor, or total donor counts?
How much of the Democrats’ total are from Norman Hsu and his associates is currently unclear as are the contributions from Chinese intelligence agencies. Perhaps when those are returned the numbers will more meaningful.
Yes, and we will also discover that the FBI killed Kennedy, we never landed on the moon, Israel was behind 9/11 and AppleJacks do indeed taste like apples. Get a life.
Michael,
Norman Hsu is not going to go away. When he starts singing to the FBI, a lot of Dem money is going to have to be returned. Perhaps there is no Chinese money in there but do you really think the PRC is going to let a crook like Hsu just leave the country after his Hong Kong bankruptcy? BTW, so far as I know, Oswald killed Kennedy, the Eagle landed on the moon in July 1969 ( at least it sure appeared that way on my tv ), 9/11 truthers and anyone who would blame Israel are insane. I cannot swear to the taste of AppleJacks.
The Democratic Party is very good at raising funds from shady sources. Hsu and other crooks have bundled a lot of contributions. Soros and his ilk are certainly trying to do the same. Given Jimmy Carter’s ties to Arab countries and Bill Clinton’s game of footsie with the Chinese, I don’t doubt foreign contributions are being funneled through US citizens.
You can be as sarcastic as you like. The Democrats will raise funds from anyone, anywhere. With Hsu, they got caught. They will again. The lapdog media can scream Abramoff all they want. The monopoly is broken. Norman Hsu is going to be central to this election’s corruption issue.
Actually, the only Chinese political fundraiser who spied for the ChiComs was Katrina Leung, the “parlor maid” — who did all her spying while also serving as one of the California Republican Party’s biggest fundraisers, which she did for over twenty years.
Meanwhile, the reason the DNC is lagging is because the corporations don’t like the idea of a strong Democratic Party (and they certainly don’t want strong state orgs, either). They want instead a weak central party so that they can buy off and control Congressional and Senate Democrats more readily.