Weird political $$$ game: RNC thumps DNC but Hill Democrats outraise GOP counterparts
This may not look like a good year politically for the Republicans, but they're doing great in one money-raising department.
According to fresh figures in required reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, and mined by The Times' diligent Dan Morain, the Republican National Committee had $4
0.6 million in the bank at the end of April, compared with the Democratic National Committee's $4.4 million. President Bush has been particularly helpful in attracting money at fund-raisers from the GOP faithful.
Good thing because the RNC will be counted on to finance much of the activity for its presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, who's been so-so in the fund-raising department. His best month was $20 million, less than half of Sen. Barack Obama's best month's haul.
The RNC has outraised the DNC so far in this 2007-08 cycle: $143.3 million to $77.6 million.
But here's where it gets kind of interesting: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is creaming the National Republican Congressional Committee. The DCCC has raised $92.9 million to the NRCC's $69.2 million. And those Democrats have $45.3 million in the bank, compared with $6.7 million for the Republican congressional campaign committee.
These numbers underscore the power of incumbency. The DCCC had $22.8 million in the bank at this point two years ago, compared with the NRCC's $23 million.
The situation is similar on the Senate side. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has raised $76.5 million and had $37.5 million in the bank at the end of April. The National Republican Senatorial Committee had raised $47.9 million, and had $19.4 million in the bank.
Of course, individual senate and congressional candidates are expected to raise their own money. But the coordinated campaign efforts by the parties suggest that the Democrats are heading into November with a significant overall advantage.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Photo: Sen. John McCain, the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee, has been so-so in the fund-raising department. Credit: Associated Press
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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Will the media be as diligent in researching contributions made to Democrat congressmen as they were in digging up dirt when the GOP was in power?
-Wm Tate,
http://www.atimelikethis.us/
Posted by: Wm Tate | June 10, 2008 at 07:06 AM