Senate Democrats Ahead In Cash Race.

Source: Washington Post

Senate Democrats are bucking past trends and laying the smackdown on the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the race as to who will raise more donations for extremely important midterm congressional elections.

In the past, this competition wasn't as much of a race since a strong NRSC crushed the DSCC usually with comparable totals like $154.4 million vs. $60.3 million in favor of the GOP.

It looks a little like hardcore Republicans are taking a second look at how things are being run before sending in that donation check.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee continued to outpace the National Republican Senatorial Committee in fundraising, bringing in more contributions and finishing the quarter with twice as much money in the bank, according to Federal Election Commission reports released yesterday.

In years past, through the 2002 elections, the NRSC consistently crushed the DSCC in the race for cash. In the 2001-2002 cycle, the GOP committee raised $154.4 million, compared with the Senate Democrats' $60.3 million.

But this trend has been turned in recent years. In the 2003-2004 cycle, Democrats for the first time pulled ahead of the NRSC. There have been growing complaints in Republican circles about the chairmanship of Sen. Elizabeth Dole (N.C.), who was elected to the post in part because of her reputation as a fundraiser.

Several factors are in play here.

For one, when they let the man do his job, Howard Dean is a money making machine.
He single-handedly resurrected internet grassroots campaigning by seeing how the internet can be such a strong resource to both get the message out and raise funds.

The other relates to the state of the nation.

People on both sides of the political aisle are extremely angry right now, and political donations will show that temperament.

Those Republican moderates on the fence may give money to the other side or not at all rather than blindly donating and giving a vote of confidence through their financial support to a party they feel has let them down.

Democratic party supporters will increase donations as they feel the need for change is more important than ever, and most Dems are anticipating a landslide similar to 1994 and want to help fuel that change.

It's amazing since the 9/11 attacks how things have changed in the political parties.

The RNC went from being this well-tooled, money raising machine to a bunch of bullies on the playground bickering at each other while the world passes them by.

The DNC flipped from a party split between the old guard and the new guard wanting change to a party galvanized by several huge GOP failures, and they now are the newly crowned political donations champion.

The Dems' message is clear ("we have had enough, and it's time for change") and concise while the Republicans sound like a copy of the Shaggy song, "It Wasn't Me," as several criminal indictments and scandals break into the news almost daily.

Tags: [Republicans], [Democrats], [NRSC], [DSCC], [Republicans aren't raising the same amount of funds as they did a few years ago], [Democrats are now the fundraising champs], [Republicans need a better message than "It wasn't me"], [9/11 changed the political parties]