Republican Fundraisers Off to Fast Start
That’s the headline for the AP’s account of the ‘Money Primary’ between D’s and R’s.
The Republican National Committee raised $13.7 million in January, getting off to a fast start for this midterm election year. That was the most raised in any one month since the 2004 election year, GOP officials said. The RNC, which has been outraising the Democratic National Committee by a 2-1 margin, reported Friday that it had nearly $39 million cash on hand at the end of January. The GOP national committee raised $101.5 million in 2005, twice the amount raised by the DNC through the year. The RNC had almost six times more in the bank than Democrats at the end of the year.
The Democrats’ Senate campaign committee started 2006 with almost a 2- 1 advantage over its GOP counterpart and the two House campaign committees were more closely matched. But the big advantage the RNC has over the DNC could be used in races up and down the ticket.
The RNC said 250,535 people provided 262,636 contributions in January to the committee for an average of $52.36.
How do you lose a 2-1 fundraising advantage in just a year? Oh, right. Dean’s running the DNC…running it into the ground, that is. It must be demoralizing for them to see this level of support for the GOP as they head into an election year.
On the other hand, Ken Mehlman and Karl Rove must be smiling ear to ear with their fundraising thus far this year. That 2-1 fundraising advantage will matter this fall, when the races heat up. Partly as a result of this fundraising support, I predict that Democrats will lower their expectations on a monthly basis as things heat up.
We saw alot of this in 2004, where Kerry kept cancelling ad buys in September and October. We’ll see it again this fall.
Cross-post at LetFreedomRing