Saturday, April 22, 2006

The Washington Post's Half-Baked Fundraising Report

The Washington Post misses some crucial conclusions with their mistitled article, "Senate Democrats Ahead in Cash Race." While fundraising numbers for the RNC, DNC, NRCC, and DCCC are buried in the article, the big picture is ignored.

Here are the totals, dollar amounts are in millions:

RaisedOn hand
RNC141.943
DNC74.110
NRCC83.324.4
DCCC52.823
NRSC50.416.5
DSCC56.432.1
R Total275.683.9
D Total183.365.1
R Lead92.318.8

For direct comparison, the top three GOP groups raised 50% more than Democrats, and have almost 30% more in the bank. In dollars, the DSCC's lead over the NRSC is more than made up for by the other top Republican organizations.

It also makes some sense that the NRSC would have some fundraising problems - it can be hard to explain that as a practical matter, 55 Republican Senators are not enough to control the chamber and prevent obstruction by the minority party.

Unfortunately, most media reporting focuses on comparing two of the organizations that raise the least money, leaving out the context.


Update, June 12: Republicans Continue to Outraise Democrats

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