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.
