Dem Funds Failing
With a Dem flop pending for November 2nd, Dem organizations are having problems raising money to defend themselves : A late effort by Democrats to match record fund raising by conservative organizations has come up short, leaving the party more reliant than usual on the campaign efforts of labor unions. A key pro-Democratic group, recently created by top party insiders to build a “firewall” around the Democrats’ majority in the House, said Thursday it hoped to raise $10 million. That’s a fraction of the $50 million that an alliance of GOP groups said Tuesday they would spend to help Republicans in dozens of House races. “We are David vs. Goliath,” said Ramona Oliver, a spokeswoman for the new Democratic group, called America’s Families First Action Fund. Founded this summer, it began raising money after Labor Day to help counter Republican fundraising efforts. It once hoped to help protect up to 30 Democratic House seats, but is now focusing on just 18 campaigns, Ms. Oliver said. In total, outside conservative groups—such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Action Network and American Crossroads—could spend more than $300 million on TV advertisements, campaign mailings and other efforts to elect Republicans to Congress this year. Outside Democratic groups, by contrast, plan to spend about $100 million on those activities. The largest labor unions say they will spend $200 million combined, but most of their focus will be on rallying union voters. You can tell things are pretty bad if they have to spend that much money to rally union voters, and even that effort could backfire given that a great many rank-and-file union members no longer support the Dem agenda. They may be turning out GOP voters. Obama himself has turned out to be a great fundraiser…for conservatives.
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on October 15, 2010. Filed under