I've been keeping on eye on legislative fundraising since a post in June critical of where House Republicans are at in raising money to support their candidates. With the help of the PDC's updated website, let's take a look at the numbers in question.
A caveat with the numbers: one, the data is a snapshot from July 29th. In between scheduled reporting dates [pdf], PDC data, especially expenditures, is not reliably current.
Note also that these numbers are for the caucus committees that support respective candidates, not the individual campaigns themselves - caucus fundraising is where Republicans have been getting killed in recent elections. Moreover, each caucus has a "hard dollar" account from which funds can either be given directly to a candidate (within specified limits) or spent in coordination with a candidate's campaign. They also have "soft dollar" accounts from which funds can be spent to support candidates, but without any coordination with them.
With that, let's review:
- The House Democrats' hard dollar account (House Demo Camp Comm) shows $295,000 in cash-on-hand.
- The Republican counterpart (House Repub Org Comm) shows $43,000 in cash.
- The House Democrats' soft dollar account (Harry Truman Fund) shows $359,000 cash-on-hand.
- The Republican counterpart (Reagan Fund) shows $87,000 in cash.
- The Senate Democrats' hard-dollar account (Senate Demo Camp Comm) shows $129,000 in cash-on-hand.
- The Republican counterpart (Senate Repub Camp Comm) shows $104,000 in cash.
- The Senate Democrats' soft-dollar account (Roosevelt Fund) shows $269,000 in cash-on-hand.
- The Republican counterpart (The Leadership Council) shows $185,000 in cash.
To summarize, House Republicans trail 7/1 in hard money and 4/1 in soft. Senate Republicans are at least within spitting distance of parity in soft and hard dollars.
After the aforementioned June post, I had a conversation with someone in House Republican leadership who had some areas of disagreement with my analysis. A primary point was that a significant amount of money ends up being transferred in the fall from individual candidates without competitive races into the caucus hard dollar account. According to this Representative, the caucus is on track to meet its internal goals in that regard.
That's all well and good; I hope it happens. But the past record of this occurring with success in previous election cycles has not been good, when Republican House candidates were badly outspent in both hard and soft dollar support.
Such an outcome would be a shame this year given the solid crew of candidates already detailed running under the House Republican banner. Some of those will be able to stand of their own accord, but being badly outspent is a easy way to lose an otherwise close election.
By looking at their own campaign accounts, some House Republicans are doing a better job than others of raising money to be transferred to the House Republican Organizing Committee (HROC) at a later date. That needs to improve and HROC itself would be well-advised to ship as much of that cash as possible to the candidates themselves, then spend available money as able on top tier candidates.
In short, the coming weeks would be a great time for House Republicans to reverse the trend of the last several election cycles...as the Senate Republicans already seem poised to do. It ultimately comes down to how many members of the House Republican caucus really want to improve their standing, versus many are simply content to be the affable minority in Olympia.
It should be little secret which is preferable.
Posted by Eric Earling at August 03, 2008 09:58 PM | Email ThisRight now the House (R) caucus has 34 out of 98 total Reps; while the Senate (R) caucus has 17 out of 49 total Senators. That's only ONE ''extra'' in the House, and NO ''extra'' in the Senate, over the minimum required to keep the (D)s from gaining an outright two-thirds Legislative majority. It's critical that Dino Rossi win count 3 out of 4 for Gov, but it's also critical that the (D)s do NOT gain an outright two-thirds majority in the WA Leg, or EVEN IF DINO IS GOV the (D)s have the potential to run wild; if their caucuses were to hold together (thank goodness for my favorite (D): Senator Tim Sheldon).
Back more on Eric's thread-start, and a bit more on the bright side (at least here in my part of eastern WA):
All 4 of the (R) incumbents running for re-election in the 7th and 12th Legislative Districts are running UNOPPOSED; the (D)s didn't even bother to put up a sacrificial lamb.
You know everything. Absolutely everything. Politically, there's nothing you can't do. Well, except show any political resume' to speak of.
Obviously, no one in the House Caucus knows what they're doing. What's kept you from running for a House seat, winning by a land slide based on your political genius; wowing your seat mates, fellow caucus members and staff with your sheer, political brilliance; and skyrocketing first to Republican leader and then, because the Caucus would follow your amazing prescient vision and political skills that would put Rove to shame, Speaker in a term or two... then to elbow aside anyone impertinent enough to oppose you in the state GOP organization... Next, the US Senate... and then, grand poobah of the PTA or something?
The entire world awaits your shining path, so to speak. You and you alone are the savior of Republican politics.
You kind of remind me of a civilian telling an Army commander how to run his battalion in combat operations when he, the civilian, lacks any experience, knowledge or ability in the field, save that provided by the Military Channel.
That the caucus has issues is true. That you do nothing to help them address those issues is also true. That things are going on that you know absolutely nothing about is undeniable. That all you want to do is stand on the side lines and throw grenades is a fact.
Eric, I mean, come on... you're the quintessential political strategist and fundraiser... Why don't you go out and raise $5 million or so for the caucus and show them how it's done? Talk is cheap, as you've repeatedly proven, and you are SO concerned... so, instead of talking this to death, why don't you get off your ass and show us all how it's done?
You won't, of course, given the thinness of your political experience and success file.
Makes one wonder who you're fronting for... and why.
Posted by: hinton on August 4, 2008 07:20 AMNow the 12th, they've all got money to burn. Were I in the Republican leadership, those would be the good arms to twist from the looks of it.
Posted by: Ryan on August 4, 2008 09:01 AMIn any case, the race to replace retiting Rep. Bob Sump will certainly be the ''hot'' contest here in north central WA (the ONLY local Leg contest, actually).
Posted by: Methow Ken on August 4, 2008 10:30 AM