October 19, 2006
Dems Pressure Kerry, Bayh to Give To DSCC
Top Democrats are trying to convince two potential presidential candidates with flush campaign bank accounts to part with as much as $1 million each to finance the DSCC s late October effort to pull six Senate seats from Republican control. Sen. Evan Bayh's 2010 re-election committee reported $10.6 million cash on hand through the end of 9/06. On Monday, following a conversation with Min. Leader Sen. Harry Reid, Bayh directed his donors to raise $100K for the DSCC and intends deliver the checks by the beginning of next week.
'04 Dem nominee John Kerry (D-MA) has more than $8 million in his presidential campaign account. In 2004, Kerry contributed $1 million to help retire the DSCC's. debt. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), another presidential aspirant with low cash reserves has given $100,000 from his Senate account and $30,000 from his PAC, according to his spokesman, Trevor Miller. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) has given $100K. Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) has written a $50K check.
Within the past two weeks, Senate colleagues, staffers and Democratic strategists began to lean on Bayh and Kerry to write larger checks, even resorting, in some instances, to direct shame: yesterday, a Democratic official not affiliated with the DSCC sent around a website, http://www.heyjohn.org/, which takes Kerry to task. "We all know why John Kerry wants to hold on to the money we gave him for 2004, but he has plenty of time left to raise money for 2008. There are only 19 days left until this election," the website says. [MARC AMBINDER]
Both Kerry and Bayh intend to use their store of money to finance to the first part of their 2008 presidential bids. Neither faces an intervening federal election, which means that they won't be able to solicit money from the same donors who've already given to their Senate accounts this cycle. If either candidate fails to meet fundraising expectations in the first fundraising period of 2007, their presidential bids could falter in their exploratory phases. Still, both have spent millions from their political action committees to aid Democrats across the country. They've both held dozens of fundraisers for Democratic candidates and have contributed the maximum amount to candidate campaigns up and down the ballot.
Kerry, in particular, has filled Democratic accounts more than almost any other Democratic Senator. Kerry staff estimates his three federal committees have given $3.5 million to Senate candidates and committees since the beginning of the cycle. They've also recorded more than $1.6 million in internet contributions from members of Kerry's e-mail list to Senate incumbents and challengers. His aides bristle at the accusation that Kerry has failed to help his colleagues retake the Senate, though they acknowledge the recent pressure to do more, and called unfair the charge that they are in the same category as Bayh. Kerry spokesman David Wade: "[The] bottom line is that from day one John Kerry put all his resources to work, while some other people still haven't even bothered to open up their checkbooks." On his official campaign website, Kerry's team set up a page bragging about their generosity: It's titled "No One Has Done More."
Bayh's PAC has written two checks worth $30,000 to the DSCC and has raised money for a half dozen candidates in competitive Senate races. Bayh's PAC has written two checks worth $30,000 to the DSCC and has raised money for a half dozen candidates in competitive Senate races. Bayh spokesman Dan Pfeiffer: "Bayh's top political priority in terms of time and resources is helping win the congressional and legislative races in Indiana."
Ideally, Democrats hope colleagues to give roughly 10 percent of their total, pointing to Sen. Hillary Clinton's two contributions totaling $2.1M as an example. A Clinton spokesman said he did not know whether she would contribute more in the waning days of the cycle. Federal campaign finance law prohibits candidates from transferring large sums out of their political action committees - the limit is $15K per year -- but it allows direct transfers between campaign accounts and national party committees.
Several parties in these negotiations declined to comment or provide background because they said they did not want to jeopardize the discussions and did not want to make it appear as if Kerry and Bayh's colleagues were trying to use the media to pressure them into writing the checks. Clinton, Kerry and Bayh have been criticized by major Democratic bloggers for being miserly. Markos Moulitsas wrote on his blog that if small dollar donors "have to sacrifice and contribute to campaigns from our household budgets, there's no reason that the Senators who would most benefit from being in the majority do so from their Senate budgets as well."
Frustrated Midlevel Dems Air Complaints
World of the negotiations has filtered down to mid-level Senate staff who are anxious to win the majority and say they are frustrated that these Senators seem to be putting their presidential aspirations ahead of the urgent needs of their caucus.
Sen. Chuck Schumer told reporters Tuesday that the DSCC would exceed its fundraising target for the cycle, widely believed to be more than $100 million. He said that aggressive fundraising efforts would continue through the election but did not elaborate. The DNC recently went into debt to transfer more than $5 million to the DSCC, and the DCCC is also considering a last-minute loan (Hotline 10/19).
Posted at 12:48 PM
Comments
"A Democratic official not affiliated with the DSCC sent around a website, http://www.heyjohn.org/, which takes Kerry to task...."
Who is this anonymous 'democratic official'? What organization are they affiliated with? I'm curious what group is trying to cause this website, which is registered in Arizona, to catch on inside the beltway.
Its amazing who passes for a democratic official these days. My guess is that its someone who joined Howard Dean's "perfect storm" and travelled to Iowa to get find nothing but Dungeons and Dragons aficionados who got whupped by Kerry. Oh and then wrote on his resume that he was a political consultant.
Johnny Anon | 10.19.06 01:42 PM
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Very sad that some Democrats use anomymous web to criticize one of the Democrats who has been raising money and campaigning for these races.
If those are Hillary's supporters, they should be ashamed of themselves. The Clinton camp does not get out of this better, far from it.
If it is Reid or Schumer, too bad. They should resign.
FrenchGirlFromMA | 10.19.06 01:52 PM
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I'm not really that concerned about Kerry, because it seems he's been doing a lot for Dems all over the country. He's even coming down here to redder-than-red SC on Friday to campaign for Randy Maatta!
Senators Bayh, Biden, Clinton, however, look pretty stingy to me. I wouldn't be surprised to learn it was a staffer from one of those three offices that put up the website shaming Kerry. How very Rovian of them.
What's even worse, there are a ton of unopposed (or barely opposed) House Democrats sitting on a total of between $26-32 million cash on hand. Here's the list of unopposed, and here's the list of barely opposed.
cfaller96 | 10.19.06 02:34 PM
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This Halloween, I am scared to death that John Kerry is gearing up for another presidential bid for '08. I am not afraid that he'll win, I'm afraid of all the media exposure featuring him that we'd be subjected to. This song is slowly becoming a Halloween classic among conservatives (and a few liberals who love to make fun of me). Feel free to share the new link with visitors to your site:
Scary Kerry
Words and music by Dr. Bruce L. Thiessen, aka Dr. BLT (c)2006
http://www.drblt.net/music/scarykerry.mp3
I hope all is well!
Bruce
aka Dr. BLT
Bruce Thiessen | 10.19.06 02:40 PM
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What about the Dem Senate incumbents with safe seats? A lot of them are sitting on pretty big campaign war chests. If the presidential candidates have to put their money into the DSCC, so should they.
Bob | 10.19.06 02:49 PM
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This piece sets out to make Senator Kerry look bad, even though most people are aware of how tirelessly he has worked and raised money to get Democrats elected.
It reads like a hit piece against Senator Kerry, with no one naming names of sources. And it seems to try and present another quite stingy Senator in a fovorable light- even though this senator has more than enough money to win the almost uncontested election she is in. She has money she certainly isn't using, why not give more?
The money I donated to Senator Kerry in 2004 was for him-not for the DSCC. If I had wanted to donate to them I would have.
This article saddens me. A good senator works his rear off and defends other Democrats and this is the thanks he gets. I will remember this little attack come primary time.
m.check | 10.19.06 03:48 PM
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$5.6 million in September and ended the month with about $8.2 million CoH. (The party reports raising $1 million in the past two days alone.)
As we've reported, the party took out a loan worth between $5M and $10M.
In total, the DNC says it expect to spend more than $25 million on Election Day
Andrew | 10.19.06 05:07 PM
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Look at the comments on the heyjohn.org site which you mention. Quite a bit of support for Kerry.
comments | 10.19.06 05:47 PM
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