Unopposed House Democrats Sitting On $26,288,418
by Chris Bowers, Wed Oct 18, 2006 at 05:20:57 PM EDT
Amidst all of this talk about taking out loans to fund key races and newly emerging races, not enough attention has been given to the huge amount of money House Democrats who are unopposed for re-election are currently storing away in their campaign bank accounts. I just did a quick tallying using Open Secrets, and calculated that the 45 Democrats who are not facing a Republican opponent this November have $26,288,418 in their campaign bank accounts as of September 30th, 2006. I put together a web page that details the cahs on hand for each of the forty-five unopposed Democrats:
Unopposed Democratic Cash
For the sake of comparison, the DCCC currently has $34,867,692 cash on hand, and the NRCC has $36,019,485 cash on hand. Further, Rahm Emmanuel apparently believes that Democrats are ahead, tied or competitive in 58 Republican held seats. The amount of money unopposed House Democrats are currently sitting on would equal $453,248.59 to each of those 58 districts.
That $26.3 million should be the fruits of the successful 435-district strategy this cycle, where for the first time in a long time Democrats ran candidates in more districts than did Republicans. This is supposed to be one of the ways that the fifty-state strategy actually drives resources to swing districts, rather than draining resources from swing districts. It is particularly disgusting that unnamed Democratic consultants are trashing Howard Dean for running the fifty-state strategy, rather than pressuring all of the unchallenged Democratic incumbents to donate their entire campaign bank accounts to the DCCC and / or Democratic challengers. These incumbents do not need election cash, since they have already won their elections. What these incumbents do need is a Democratic majority so they can actually govern for their constituents.
The fifty-state strategy has put Democrats in a competitive position in more districts than few thought imaginable. It has also left more Democrats unchallenged than in any cycle in recent memory. For the strategy to work its final, brutal magic on these elections, the result of these conditions should be that the money from the record number of unchallenged incumbents be transferred to the record number of competitive Democratic challengers. As you can see, this in neither a small amount of money nor a small amount of districts: $453,248.59 to 58 competitive, Republican-held districts. This amount of money would virtually erase any remaining monetary advantage for Republican incumbents in these districts. This is money that would tip the balance of resources decisively in our favor for these elections in dozens of districts. And we have that money, right now, sitting in Democratic campaign bank accounts.
I want to start a campaign to get all forty-five of these unchallenged Democratic incumbents to transfer all of their money to the DCCC in large lumps and / or to competitive Democratic campaigns at $2,100 a pop. The candidates who follow through and give all of their money away to competitive districts should receive some kind of rewards, since the stick always works well with the carrot. I have the following carrots in mind:
Who is with me? I have included a poll below this post to gauge support for this project. If you would be willing to make calls to unopposed House Democrats asking them to give up all of their money in order to target swing House districts this election cycle., vote "yes" in the poll. If not, vote "no." This is the best chance we have had to pick up seats since 1982, and it may be the best chance we have until 2030. That remaining $26.3 million could be the difference between a landslide election that changes politics in America for more than a decade to come, and an election where control of the House is determined on a knife's edge. We need this money, and we need it now. Let me know if you are willing to help.
Unopposed Democratic Cash
For the sake of comparison, the DCCC currently has $34,867,692 cash on hand, and the NRCC has $36,019,485 cash on hand. Further, Rahm Emmanuel apparently believes that Democrats are ahead, tied or competitive in 58 Republican held seats. The amount of money unopposed House Democrats are currently sitting on would equal $453,248.59 to each of those 58 districts.
That $26.3 million should be the fruits of the successful 435-district strategy this cycle, where for the first time in a long time Democrats ran candidates in more districts than did Republicans. This is supposed to be one of the ways that the fifty-state strategy actually drives resources to swing districts, rather than draining resources from swing districts. It is particularly disgusting that unnamed Democratic consultants are trashing Howard Dean for running the fifty-state strategy, rather than pressuring all of the unchallenged Democratic incumbents to donate their entire campaign bank accounts to the DCCC and / or Democratic challengers. These incumbents do not need election cash, since they have already won their elections. What these incumbents do need is a Democratic majority so they can actually govern for their constituents.
The fifty-state strategy has put Democrats in a competitive position in more districts than few thought imaginable. It has also left more Democrats unchallenged than in any cycle in recent memory. For the strategy to work its final, brutal magic on these elections, the result of these conditions should be that the money from the record number of unchallenged incumbents be transferred to the record number of competitive Democratic challengers. As you can see, this in neither a small amount of money nor a small amount of districts: $453,248.59 to 58 competitive, Republican-held districts. This amount of money would virtually erase any remaining monetary advantage for Republican incumbents in these districts. This is money that would tip the balance of resources decisively in our favor for these elections in dozens of districts. And we have that money, right now, sitting in Democratic campaign bank accounts.
I want to start a campaign to get all forty-five of these unchallenged Democratic incumbents to transfer all of their money to the DCCC in large lumps and / or to competitive Democratic campaigns at $2,100 a pop. The candidates who follow through and give all of their money away to competitive districts should receive some kind of rewards, since the stick always works well with the carrot. I have the following carrots in mind:
- Some sort of trophy or medal indicating their service to the party.
- The netroots purchased donor and email lists.
- A promise of netroots support against all primary challengers for the 2008 cycle.
- A special Act Blue page for all participating Democrats during the entirety of the 2008 cycle.
Who is with me? I have included a poll below this post to gauge support for this project. If you would be willing to make calls to unopposed House Democrats asking them to give up all of their money in order to target swing House districts this election cycle., vote "yes" in the poll. If not, vote "no." This is the best chance we have had to pick up seats since 1982, and it may be the best chance we have until 2030. That remaining $26.3 million could be the difference between a landslide election that changes politics in America for more than a decade to come, and an election where control of the House is determined on a knife's edge. We need this money, and we need it now. Let me know if you are willing to help.
Tags: Fundraising, House 2006, Use It (all tags)
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