Senate 2008 Guru: Following the Races

Keeping a close eye on developments in the 2008 U.S. Senate races

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

More DSCC Success and NRSC Failure

  • Political Insider brings us CongressDaily's reporting of fundraising figures for Janruary-February:

    The DSCC has outperformed the NRSC in recent months in terms of fundraising, according to CongressDaily. "The DSCC has raised more than $4.9 million for the first two months of the 2008 election cycle and ended last month with just under $2.5 million on hand." The NRSC, by comparison, raised a total of $3.3 million for the first two months of the year and ended the month with nearly $1.4 million.
    We remember from January that "the DSCC raised $2.2 million, more than double the NRSC's $900K." Which means that February's take was roughly $2.7 million for the DSCC and only $2.4 million for the NRSC. So Ensign had time in January to hire staff, choose new wallpaper for the office, and so on. And, in February, Schumer still beat him by several hundred thousand dollars. No wonder Ensign is panhandling to the RNC for more money. I can't wait for the March figures to come out next month. Keep up the great work Senator Schumer! As kos put it:

    I'm no longer so sad to see Liddy Dole exit the NRSC. It looks like Ensign will be more than a worthy replacement.
  • Speaking of Senator Schumer, he posted a diary today on Daily Kos urging the netroots to get involved by offering its ideas on Senate recruitment for this cycle. So, send him your ideas here.

  • Colorado: How does the conservative blogosphere regard the NRSC? Well, in the wake of Scott McInnis' apparent departure from the Senate race and rumors that the NRSC is courting state AG John Suthers, ToTheRight.org, which bills itself as Colorado's Top Conservative News Outlet, offered these comments:

    Suthers’ barely-a-victory victory against unknown Fern O’Brien doesn’t impress us as the sort of thing that would scare off a relatively popular Congressman from a swing district.

    If there is truth to recent claims that the NRSC is courting Suthers to run for Senate, it only proves that are just as inept now as they were last year.
    "Just as inept now as they were last year" when they lost six seats and the Senate majority. It doesn't sounds like the conservative blogosphere has much affection for the NRSC, if this is any indication.

  • 12 Comments:

    Blogger Will Cubbison said...

    Ah the irony. Brad Miller's diary was right below Chuck's on the recc list.

    Hopefully we can get Chuck to recruit Rep Miller

    6:02 PM, March 21, 2007  
    Blogger James L. said...

    It will be amusing to see VA Blogger spin this one.

    6:51 PM, March 21, 2007  
    Blogger VA Blogger said...

    Here are the numbers, in case you don't have access to the Congressional Daily:

    DSCC:

    Feb '07 intake: $2.7 million
    CoH: $2.5 million
    Debt: $6 million

    NRSC:

    Feb '07 intake: $2.4 million
    CoH: $1.4 million
    Debt: $700K

    So the NRSC was just about neck-and-neck with the DSCC in fundraising, and though they are down about a million in cash on hand, they owe over $5 million less, putting them on the DSCC in net value by over $4 million.

    Why would any spin be required?

    6:58 PM, March 21, 2007  
    Blogger James L. said...

    I should have been more clear--my point was more directed towards NRSC recruitment, which you have defended in the past. McInnis' exit is nothing but a failure in that regard.

    Still, the NRSC tugging on the RNC's robe is not a good sign.

    7:09 PM, March 21, 2007  
    Blogger VA Blogger said...

    How is the NRSC asking for more money--and the likelihood of them getting it--a bad sign, exactly?

    You guys seem to be pre-occupied with reading in between the lines. Sometimes, there's nothing there. Money is good. More money is better. As the February numbers indicate, fundraising is going well. Taking out an insurance policy by getting backing from the RNC can only mean positive things.

    I like McInnis, so I'm disappointed by his decision not to run. But I think its hilarious that Democrats label him "the strongest GOP contender by far" (over at Kos) or the GOP frontrunner (in a race of one, over here) as soon as he exits the race. I don't know much about Suthers, except that he ran and won in the same year that Beauprez lost by double-digits. And given that Mark Udall by no means has a claim on the middle ground with his liberal voting record, we'll see whoever emerges as the GOP nominee plays with the state.

    9:35 PM, March 21, 2007  
    Blogger Senate2008Guru said...

    va blogger - you must be trying to get a rise out of us because you can't be that dense.

    If Ensign was doing his job, he would be cultivating donors - he would be collecting money from donors around the country. By asking the RNC to foot the NRSC's bill, he's just robbing Peter to pay Paul - he's not cultivating new donors, he's just sapping GOP resources originally dedicated for other purposes like electing a Republican President.

    You are, like, the only person not recognizing this at this point.

    And what do you need to know about Suthers? Well, even the conservative netroots are unimpressed with him.

    12:25 AM, March 22, 2007  
    Blogger VA Blogger said...

    Again, you're reading far more into the story than any availible information suggests. What makes you think Ensign is not cultivating donors and aggressively fundraising independently? No where did the article suggest that Ensign was trying to use the RNC as a sugar mama, or that he was substitution their own fundraising for the RNC's.

    And there's absolutely nothing to suggest he's trying to foot the RNC with the bill.

    Again, for those of you who don't understand elementary concepts:

    MONEY = GOOD.

    FUNDRAISING = MONEY

    MONEY + MORE MONEY = BETTER

    FUNDRAISING + RNC SUPPORT = MORE MONEY

    Let me know if that's too much to digest all at once, and I'll get together with some people and draw up some nifty diagrams.

    And one person's opinion on Suthers isn't nearly enough for me to reach my own conclusions about him, but thanks for trying.

    7:39 AM, March 22, 2007  
    Blogger Will Cubbison said...

    http://www.bluenc.com/survey-sez-senators-suck

    8:51 AM, March 22, 2007  
    Blogger Senate2008Guru said...

    va blogger - I'll use small words.

    It actually matters where the money comes from.

    Let's say you have a savings account with $500 in it and a checking account with $500 in it. If you transfer $250 from the checking account into the savings account, you haven't earned 250 new dollars - you still have the same $1,000. You haven't raised any additional money.

    Draining the RNC coffers to fill the NRSC coffers isn't "fundraising," it's just a GOP transfer.

    Is that at all clear?

    12:54 PM, March 22, 2007  
    Blogger VA Blogger said...

    Yes, its perfectly clear, but that's not what I'm talking about.

    You are acting as if Ensign has asked for financial support from the RNC, and is giving up fundraising altogether. That could not be farther from the truth.

    To use your example, its taking $100 dollars from the RNC account and putting it into yours, and then going out and earning $1,000 in fundraising.

    So why get the $100 from the RNC? Because its $100 more than you would normally have.

    Its boggling my mind how you are unable to grasp this.

    1:32 PM, March 22, 2007  
    Blogger Senate2008Guru said...

    But why ask for anything from the RNC when Ensign is allegedly out raising tons of dough when it will just make him look bad at this early stage? Why do it, unless Ensign thought it was absolutely necessary to make ends meet?

    Why are you, va blogger, the only one not to grasp that? Heck, if more money is better and it doesn't matter where the money comes from, why isn't he asking the NRCC for money too?

    1:36 PM, March 22, 2007  
    Blogger VA Blogger said...

    How is it making him look bad? The only people who have tried to make hay out of this are liberal blogs. I highly doubt that conservative donors care about what they have to say, or reached the same farcical conclusions that you did.

    I don't understand the stretch of logic that you're undertaking in order to make this point. The RNC typically helps the NRSC in non-presidential years, so we can establish right there that financial support from the RNC to the NRSC has never been an indication of weakness from the NRSC.

    "Unless Ensign thought it was absolutely neccesary to make ends meet".

    Honestly, you're getting more and more ridiculous with every post you make. "Make ends meet"? Are you being serious here? Really?

    Its simply astounding how much you can stretch one article. There is literally NOTHING to support any of the accusations you've made so far. You're just rambling and pulling things out of your ass as you go along.

    And the reason why they asked the RNC instead of the NRCC is because the RNC is above the two Congressional organizations, and typically has much, much more cash on hand. Plus, the NRCC would probably say "no".

    2:02 PM, March 22, 2007  

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