Democrats Winning the Money Race

By: Lowell
Published On: 7/4/2007 6:13:55 AM

According to today's New York Times, Democratic 2008 Presidential candidates are winning the money race, big-time, over their Republican counterparts:

The top three Democrats, including former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, raised $68.5 million over the past three months, compared with $48.7 million for the top three Republicans, according to the reports. Since the start of the year, the Democrats raised nearly 50 percent more than the Republicans, $144.3 million compared with $101.7 million...

That's a huge gap, and "a stark indication of a gap in enthusiasm and confidence between the two parties," according to the New York Times.  I would add that it's also an indication of the Democrats' dominance online, where a great deal of money is coming from the netroots - small, engaged, citizen-activists who read blogs and who give money (in droves, apparently) to candidates!

The question is, will the Democratic dominance in terms of money continue?  Also, most importantly, will it translate into victory next November?  I don't know, but I'll say one thing: I'd rather be in OUR position with regards to money right now than in THEIR position.  If there's one thing about politics I know, it's that all else being equal, it's better to have more money than your opponent.  At this point in the cycle, Democrats certainly have that going for them.

P.S.  Also encouraging, "Democrats appear to be building vast databases of new individual donors who could be called on by the party for years to come."  That's a great sign for the long haul.

Comments



Corporate Money is THE Problem.... (mosquitopest - 7/4/2007 6:43:54 AM)
I don't think the Dems should be braggin' that they are now going to be the recipients of big money now.

One BIG reason I doubt I can ever support Hillary Clinton is her monetary obligations to Big Money in Healthcare.....We need to get the Corporate money out of healthcare AND out of our gov if we ever hope to see America become a functioning democracy again....

Otherwise our country will just be the military arm of a corporate takeover of the world.....

buzz....Buzz....



Much of the Democrats' money is coming from (Lowell - 7/4/2007 6:53:10 AM)
small donors, over the internet.  I think that's a great thing.  Also, I think it's great that Democrats are finally outraising Republicans.  Having said all that, I completely agree with you that we need to take back our Democracy for regular people who aren't rich or gigantic mega-corporations.  I believe that's very much in the spirit of the American Revolution and Independence Day.


small donors = democracy at work (Info_Tech_Guy - 7/4/2007 7:00:52 AM)
I agree with you, Lowell. I am encouraged when I see that the source of fund-raising is many small donors rather than business lobbyists, wealthy investors, the corporate managerial elite or "front organizations" for wealthy elites...

That said, I'm not impressed my Senator Clinton, her sources of funding nor her legislative positions which, in my opinion, smack of "quid pro quo".



Party money vs. non-Party money (Teddy - 7/4/2007 3:30:41 PM)
is indeed the sleeper here, expecially now that the Supreme Court has decided part of the McCain finance reform legislation is inapplicable. Remember the extra-curricular Swift Boat ads? The extra-curricular ads for the drug prescription legislation that benefitted Big Pharma, the ads and other campaigns attacking various Democrats that mysteriously never could be traced to the Republican Party but always supported a Republican candidate? (On the Democratic side MoveOn.org was the only contrary example that raised money, and that money came from the same small donors we now see on the Dem side, not from Big Business). 

How can we calculate the amount of money these sources will be pouring into future elections? There will be ever more and more of it, offsetting the poor little hopeful private donor who is supporting the Democrats.

We need to find a way to publicize this kind of corporate money, in which sum I would include the self-righteous in-kind donations of right wing televangelists pushing their own so-called values agenda in sermons and rallies.