Financial Picture Brightens for Democrats
Paul Kekai Manansala
By SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The Democratic Party finds itself in its most confident
and comfortable financial position in years, though it still trails
Republicans in almost every fund-raising category.
President Bush (news - web sites)'s fund-raising juggernaut keeps
rolling, reaching more than $182 million Thursday and closing in on
doubling the $100 million record he set in 2000.
The Democrats' efforts to whittle away at the GOP's spending advantage
has been aided by presidential nominee-to-be John Kerry (news - web
sites)'s decision to skip public financing and its spending limits,
anti-Bush sentiment over the Iraq (news - web sites) war, elimination
of the party's debt, the formation of outside Democratic fund-raising
groups and Howard Dean (news - web sites)'s Internet fund-raising
explosion.
"Everywhere I go I'll talk to people and they really feel we have a
chance," said Tony Coelho, a Democratic strategist and Al Gore (news -
web sites)'s campaign chairman in 2000. "They're going to have $200
million or more. But I think as long as we're around $100 million
we'll be competitive, we'll get our message out."
Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) Chairman Terry
McAuliffe sees considerable progress toward that goal: The party
entered April with $25 million in the bank to spend on Kerry's behalf
and no debt, its best shape at this point in an election season in
years.
But the Republican money advantage remains significant, no matter how
it is measured.
Bush spent about $40 million on TV and radio ads in his first month on
the air, compared to only about $6 million for Kerry. Kerry has raised
at least $67 million.
The Republican National Committee (news - web sites) had $54 million
on hand Thursday and no debt. The GOP's Senate fund-raising committee
had roughly twice as much in the bank as its Democratic rival. The
Democratic House committee was closest to its Republican counterpart
in cash on hand, $12.3 million compared to $16 million.
The DNC, tackling two problems that dogged the party for years, has
eliminated its debt while substantially improving its ability to
attract small-dollar donations through the mail, a fund-raising method
the GOP long has used more effectively.
McAuliffe is trying to limit the party's operating costs to the amount
raised through direct mail, reserving the millions taken in through
fund-raisers for the presidential race.
The DNC also is coordinating its fund raising with Kerry. The party
has raised at least $5 million for Kerry using its list of e-mail
addresses, and Kerry is headlining DNC events in several cities where
he is holding fund-raisers for his campaign.
The area of Democratic fund raising that has most stung the
Republicans has been conducted by new tax-exempt groups on the outside
that have raised millions in large soft-money donations that the
Democratic Party can no longer collect.
Those groups, funded by the likes of billionaire George Soros and run
by such Democratic heavyweights as former Clinton deputy Harold Ickes,
are running ads in battleground states to help close the gap with Bush
and give Kerry time to resupply his campaign treasury.
Republicans were worried enough this week that they filed a formal
complaint with federal election regulators accusing Kerry of illegally
collaborating with the outside groups and seeking an end to the
spending.
Kerry, meanwhile, is setting Democratic fund-raising records of his
own.
Kerry raised at least $42 million from January through March, with
checks still being counted Thursday. That tops the Democratic record
of $16 million raised in a quarter set by former candidate Dean, and
rivals the all-time presidential quarterly record of more than $50
million Bush set in the first quarter. The Bush campaign has not yet
released an exact fund-raising total for the quarter.
Kerry can break records in part because like Bush, he skipped public
financing for the primaries, freeing himself from a $45 million
spending cap he would have faced until his party's nominating
convention in July.
In 2000, nominee-to-be Gore was already close to the spending limit in
March, leaving him a long summer of relying on others like the DNC,
which faced its own fund-raising challenges, to counter the ads of the
well-financed Bush.
This time, Kerry can spend as much as he can raise between now and the
convention. He hopes to have raised a total of roughly $105 million
from January 2003 to the convention.
The Internet is playing a big role. Dean was the first Democratic
presidential hopeful to raise millions online and showed Democrats how
it could be done, urging donors to help meet fund-raising goals by
specific dates or for specific campaign spending. Now he's helping
Kerry.
Kerry raised more than $20 million online in March through two
fund-raising drives that asked contributors to help him raise $10
million in each of two 10-day periods. Dean sees potential for the
party on the Internet as well.
"One of the things I think people still have to come to grips with is
this is a two-way organizing effort," Dean said of the Internet. "I
think on the Net if you have a really good Internet setup and you
blog, people get feedback right away from what they say to you. And we
actually get feedback."
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Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala