As promised. Short version: DNC beat RNC, NRSC edged DSCC, DCCC edged NRCC, and cash on hand would worry me more if the GOP hadn’t just removed the NJ & VA governorships from the Democrats and essentially handed NY-23 as part of a unfortunate but necessary life lesson to the GOP leadership.
| RNC | 9.06 | 11.29 | 0.00 |
| DNC | 11.58 | 12.96 | 4.40 |
| NRSC | 4.00 | 5.80 | 0.00 |
| DSCC | 3.70 | 11.30 | 2.00 |
| NRCC | 3.44 | 4.17 | 2.00 |
| DCCC | 3.76 | 14.52 | 3.34 |
| GOP | 16.5 | 21.26 | 2.00 |
| Dem | 19.04 | 38.78 | 9.74 |
Funny. The NRSC’s Chairman John Cornyn says the NRSC is sitting Florida out and won’t spend a nickel there. That’s fine. Of course they did just send out a big memo to NRSC donors and others highlighting all of the up coming opportunities for them to give Charlie Crist money.
The most interesting thing about the list is that an event for Carly Fiorina is also listed, but I thought the NRSC hadn’t endorsed her. Bwahahahaha. I know. Who am I kidding.
In case you too want to do that or show up with protest signs, the list of events, addresses, and even hosts (!!!) is below the fold.
Impressive that he has so many in Florida. Usually he goes out of state to raise his cash since fewer and fewer in Florida like him.
Republicans are - rightly - crowing this morning about the GOP’s victories in the New Jersey Governor’s race and a battery of races in Virginia from the Governorship on down and what they say about the turn in the national mood, if not in a pro-Republican direction then at least in a direction that’s sufficiently hostile to the Democrats that voters in states won by Obama and dominated by the Democrats in the last few years are willing to give individual Republicans another chance.
But the key word there, even in an across-the-board sweep like happened in Virginia, is individual. There remains an ongoing battle on the Right over how Republicans choose which candidates to support - who voters and the national party organs should back in primaries, when and whether to support third party candidacies, etc. It’s a battle intensified by Doug Hoffman’s loss in the NY-23 race after the NRCC-backed candidate, Dede Scoazzafava, ended up swinging the race to the Democrats when she endorsed Bill Owens. But in making sense of such debates, this is a point that cannot be stressed enough: no matter how favorable or unfavorable the overall national climate may be, no matter what ideological compass you want the party to follow, you can’t ever overlook the importance of the individual candidates and the conditions they run in. I said it in 2008 with regard to presidential campaigns, and it’s true as well of races for Governor, Senate or House: ideas don’t run for president, people do.
Well, the one Republican in Washington, D.C. today who seems to have had a realistic assessment of what took place yesterday is John Cornyn, the Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
He made sure to tell a reporter that the NRSC will not spend any money in Florida for Crist or against Rubio.
Most curious in his statement were three words:
“As far as what’s happening in specifically Florida — we made a decision to endorse Gov. Crist at his request. But we’re really not involved in the primary,” Cornyn told Manu. “That’s up to the voters in Florida.”
So . . . um . . . the NRSC didn’t really want to endorse Crist, but Crist very much wanted them to so he could look like the establishment guy? That’s what I take from this. If Crist wants to own the mantel of “GOP Establishment Candidate,” let’s tie it around his waist and throw him in one of Florida’s many lagoons.
Make no mistake about it, the only reason that endorsement happened was not to help Crist, but to stop donors from giving money to Rubio. Now that this is no longer a reality or possibility, the NRSC is throwing Charlie to wolves.
The message from John Cornyn to everyone seems very clear, “We’re not as screwed up as the NRCC and will not be playing in Florida.”
See? Just one of the very many reasons NY-23 was a victory for conservatives.
Now go make a donation to Marco Rubio. Remember NY-23.
One of the stranger episodes in corporate marketing history occurred in 1985 when the Coca-Cola Corporation decided to alter the secret formula of its flagship product.
Maybe Republican Party leaders could stand a review.
The head of Republican Senate campaign efforts said late Monday that GOPers in New York’s 23rd district “[paid] the price” for picking a nominee in a hotly contested special election behind closed doors.
But wait . . . it gets better.
NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh said on Monday that Cornyn’s tweet was directed at the local party and not at the NRCC or RNC.
So apparently, if the closed doors are located in Washington, D.C., everything is fine. If the closed doors are located in district, it is bad.
John Cornyn just expressed everything that is wrong with the Beltway Republican Establishment TM. And he has become so entrenched in it himself that he cannot see the hypocrisy.
He too went behind closed doors and picked Charlie Crist as the NRSC’s favorite in Florida and now we will do to John Cornyn and the NRSC in Florida exactly what we did in NY-23 to the NRCC and Pete Sessions — clean their clocks.
The NRCC spent $900,000.00 to get Dede Scozzafava elected and failed. John Cornyn told me months ago that the NRSC was picking Crist so the NRSC could free up money to go elsewhere.
The rational for that decision no longer holds water. If the NRSC does not stand down in Florida, Cornyn will further contribute to the party schism Pete Sessions started in NY-23.
And by the way, multiple County Chairs in NY-23 said they chose Scozzafava on the advice and input of the NRCC.
If you work for a man, in Heaven’s name work for him. If he pays wages that supply you your bread and butter, work for him, speak well of him, think well of him, and stand by him, and stand by the institution he represents.
Thus begins the Apologia to “A Message to Garcia”. It would behoove Pete Sessions and John Cornyn, head of the NRCC and NRSC respectively, to heed this message. These individuals seem to have forgotten just who pays the bills and funds these committees. And to be clear, that would be THE BASE.
Slip-shod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, & half-hearted work seem the rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook or crook, or threat, he forces or bribes other men to assist him…
Those words were written 110 years ago, yet are wholly applicable to our current situation. The NRSC and NRCC seem to be embracing these things rather than avoiding them.
It is not as if the base hasn’t made their complaints known, ever hear of “Not One Red Cent“. On the contrary, upon hearing the complaints the NRSC has treated them with dowdy indifference to say the least. To the credit of the NRCC they did create the Young Guns program, but as mentioned above “half hearted work seems the rule”.
When will Chairmans’ Sessions and Cornyn remember that character matters…
Well he’s a fine accountant, but if I’d send him up town on an errand, he might accomplish the errand all right, and on the other hand, might stop at four saloons on the way, and when he got to Main Street, would forget what he had been sent for.
Can such a man be entrusted to carry a message to Garcia?
Can we now trust you to run our errands, bypassing the saloons. Or, should we come to expect the continued stench of gin on your breath and failure at the ballot box?
If put to the pinch, an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness. If you must vilify, condemn, and eternally disparage, why, resign your position, and when you are outside, damn to your heart’s content.
You have both been to clever for your own good and are quickly outlasting your usefulness.
Remember these words dear Sirs…
In every store and factory there is a constant weeding-out process going on.
[...]
No matter how good times are, this sorting continues, only if times are hard and work is scarce, the sorting is done finer - but out and forever, the incompetent and unworthy go.
[...]
Self-interest prompts every employer to keep the best - those who can carry the message to Garcia.
The process has begun, our collective dander has been raised and we demand answers. Will you step down so that we may make room for our own Rowan?
It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies: do the thing - “Carry a message to Garcia!”
Aaron B. Gardner.
I have to call this post that, because the other front page writers won’t let me use the word b*lls**t in a title or post.
But that is exactly what the National Republican Senatorial Committee is peddling this evening.
In a nutshell, the NRSC endorsed Carly Fiorina after spending months asking her to run for the Senate in California.
But, the NRSC refuses to actually use the word “endorse” because they know conservatives are already angry over their Charlie Crist endorsement.
So the NRSC invites some guy no one has ever heard of named Al Ramirez who has been in the California Senate race forever without raising any money to come to the NRSC in Washington to announce Ramirez’s race.
The NRSC then says “see, see, we aren’t taking sides in California like we are in pretty much every other state. Oh, and screw Chuck DeVore.”
Ramirez gets on Twitter and says that thanks to the NRSC he now as over 4,000 twitter followers. The NRSC is clearly cooler and better than Billy Mayes!!!!!
Coincidentally, he has an almost identical list of followers as Carly Fiorina, though she, amazingly, added 3,500 more than Ramirez in just about 24 hours.
Not surprisingly, virtually all of both Fiorina and Ramirez’s followers are porn and spambots. But dammit, they have a huge list of followers in 24 hours! They are quite popular with the virtual porn crowd!
Here’s where it gets interesting.
Ramirez deleted his post thanking the NRSC for getting him 4000 porn and spambot followers. We saved the screenshot and posted it.
The NRSC then cries to Leon that he should not have posted that without talking to them — after all they are so honest they speak of Senator Fiorina out of one side of their mouth and demand retractions that they’ve endorsed her out of the other side of the mouth.
At the same time the NRSC is crying foul, Al Ramirez gets on Twitter to say the NRSC never helped him get his twitter followers, despite having previously said EXACTLY THAT and then deleting it later.
How exactly does it help either Fiorina or Ramirez to be racking up porn and spambot followers on twitter? It does them both a disservice.
The NRCC and NRSC are both destroying their relationships with conservatives. If they want to run campaigns without conservatives, that’s fine, but we will do to the NRSC exactly what we are doing to the NRCC in NY-23.
By the way, why exactly is the NRSC so upset over this?
Because I’m sure NRSC would be horrified if the world and, more precisely, the Senate Republican Conference, knew the NRSC was buying twitter followers that consist of porn and spam in order to establish their new media street cred. At some point the Republican Conference in the Senate is going to have a WTF moment and people will be held accountable for this nonsense. And I bet it will happen right after Doug Hoffman wins on Tuesday in NY-23. The NRSC cannot possibly be so naive as to think we will not do to them what we have done to the NRCC if they don’t change their ways.
It’s that time again. Short version: RNC beat DNC, but DSCC & DCCC significantly outraised their counterparts - sufficiently so that the Democrats raised more overall for the month. When debt is factored in, the Democrats also went from being significantly behind on cash-on-hand to being slightly ahead. That being said: the RNC and NRCC are both reporting significant increases in small-person donors.
| Raised | CoH | Debts | |
| RNC | 9.05 | 18.90 | 0.00 |
| DNC | 8.20 | 14.90 | 5.03 |
| NRSC | 3.20 | 5.20 | 0.00 |
| DSCC | 5.90 | 10.30 | 2.50 |
| NRCC | 3.41 | 4.32 | 2.00 |
| DCCC | 7.00 | 14.70 | 4.00 |
| GOP | 15.66 | 28.42 | 2.00 |
| Dem | 21.1 | 39.9 | 11.53 |
Maybe if the NRSC wasn’t so busy wading into contested primaries in efforts to push the conservatives out, people would give them more money.
Until then we should expect to keep seeing this headline.
Consider this an open thread.
I’m writing you from the floor of the Califorina Republican Party’s (CRP) convention in Indian Wells, CA. For you non-Californians, the CRP holds two conventions every year — usually in February and September. The September convention before an election year is the de facto kickoff for the various campaigns. That’s why we’ve got here the various contenders for the CA GOP nomination out in force here: most notably Poizner, Whitman, and Campbell for Governor, and DeVore and Fiorina for U.S. Senate.
Carly Fiorina is the only major candidate who isn’t attending this convention. Her reason, as explained to Jon Fleischman in the Flash Report and Karen Tumulty at Time (yeah, I know), is that her cancer treatments preclude her from coming. Well, okay — but as RedState noted, she was certainly able to videoconference in with Elizabeth Edwards a few weeks back, and she’s planning on keynoting the Web 2.0 Summit in a couple of weeks. Oh, and she’s also jetting off to conferences in Milan and Sao Paolo shortly after that.
The Fiorina campaign is not pleased that a Rasmussen poll released on the convention’s first day shows Chuck DeVore as the stronger candidate against Barbara Boxer. Pretty tough when all that cash and name recognition buys you a solid second place.
But that’s not why I’m writing. I’m not even writing to tell you that they’ve plastered the convention hotel with “CARLYFORNIA DREAMIN’!!!” placards, complete with the three exclamation points. I’m not even writing to tell you that Carly’s staff are walking around blaming high-priced Hollywood-flack McCain-’08-veteran Fred Davis for their disastrous website. No.
I’m writing to tell you about the loose talk here about Carly and the NRSC, emanating from the friends of Larry Elder.
Wouldn’t you know it: I decide not to do anything consequential and the fundraising numbers become available. Short version: the GOP out-raised the Democrats for the first time since April; the NRSC beat out the DSCC for the second month; the NRCC continues to stay essentially tied with the DCCC; and the Democrats aren’t paying their debt down.
| Raised | CoH | Debts | |
| RNC | 7.87 | 20.97 | 0.00 |
| DNC | 6.89 | 15.34 | 5.33 |
| NRSC | 3.10 | 5.10 | 0.00 |
| DSCC | 2.20 | 6.70 | 2.90 |
| NRCC | 3.15 | 4.20 | 2.00 |
| DCCC | 3.30 | 10.73 | 4.67 |
| GOP | 14.12 | 30.27 | 2.00 |
| Dem | 12.39 | 32.77 | 12.90 |
I don’t know a single Republican leaning blog that got tipped off about Senator John Cornyn’s memo to the Senate Republican Conference. Brian Walsh from the NRSC just emailed to let me know he had, in fact, emailed me earlier today with a copy of the email. For reasons unbeknownst to either of us, I got one responding to the Devore press release, but no others.
The Hill, CNN, and other media outlets were furnished sneak peaks of it.
Finally, CNN released the text. What is more interesting about the memo is what it does not say than what it does say. Let’s dive in.
First, there is no mention of Florida. Remember Florida and Charlie Crist? By the way, watch this.
In Florida, the NRSC first drew the ire of the conservative blogosphere by lining up behind the fundamentally flawed Florida Governor, Crist. Crist made headlines when Barack Obama referred to him as his favorite Republican after Crist engaged in some love banter over Obama’s stimulus and environmental policies. Crist, too, is a cap and trade fan.
There is no mention of that seat.
Now, some might say that this is a seat already held by the GOP, so why highlight it. Except, the memo does mention Kentucky and Missouri — both held by the GOP.
Is the failure to mention Florida a way of avoiding awkward questions about Crist’s appointing his errand boy to the Senate?
Cornyn, a Senator from Texas, also does not mention Texas. The NRSC has failed to rally around Michael Williams, despite repeatedly fluffing up the media talking points on diversity outreach initiatives in candidate recruiting.
Is the failure to mention Texas a hint that Kay Bailey Hutchison may not continue her gubernatorial run, choosing instead to stay in the Senate?
Then there are two things the memo does talk about that need to be examined even more closely.
Short version: Democrats had a good month for the DNC - they beat out the RNC for a change - which was enough to let them end with a edge in amount raised and total cash-on-hand of a couple million. Fortunately, July fundraising for the congressional and senatorial committees was not a repeat of June’s: despite their having a significant edge in membership, the DSCC lagged the NRSC and the DCCC barely edged the NRCC. And the debt still remains significant on the Democrats’ side.
| Raised | CoH | Debts | |
| RNC | 6.26 | 21.84 | 0.00 |
| DNC | 9.29 | 16.32 | 5.13 |
| NRSC | 2.75 | 4.43 | 0.00 |
| DSCC | 2.04 | 7.15 | 3.33 |
| NRCC | 3.08 | 4.01 | 2.75 |
| DCCC | 3.20 | 10.22 | 5.30 |
| GOP | 12.09 | 30.28 | 2.75 |
| Dem | 14.53 | 33.69 | 13.76 |
Short version: the Democrats had a good month in their Congressional/Senatorial Committee fundraising (double their previous month’s totals, as well as double their Republican counterparts); the RNC is back to outraising the DNC; cash on hand is at parity, except that the GOP is running with a debt that’s 1/10th of their total and the Democrats are running with one that’s half; and this is all very different than this time in 2007.
| Raised | CoH | Debts | |
| RNC | 8.00 | 23.70 | 0.00 |
| DNC | 6.75 | 13.03 | 4.91 |
| NRSC | 3.40 | 4.30 | 0.00 |
| DSCC | 6.20 | 7.90 | 3.70 |
| NRCC | 3.14 | 4.16 | 3.25 |
| DCCC | 7.10 | 9.70 | 6.00 |
| GOP | 14.54 | 32.16 | 3.25 |
| Dem | 20.05 | 30.63 | 14.61 |
Let’s start with the NRCC’s incentive program for last-minute 2Q donations that they announced yesterday:
Every dollar you give through tomorrow, June 30th, will be quadrupled. So if you give $5, we’ll make it $20. If you can afford $25, we’ll make it $100.
That’s four times the impact of a normal contribution, and it will be put to immediate use replacing Pelosi’s puppets in Congress with principled, conservative Republicans.
At this point, somebody has reflexively started a very long comment on why this offer should be ignored. While he’s writing it, let me explain why you shouldn’t.
Yup, it’s that time again. Short version: the DNC beat the RNC last month, thanks to a Presidential fundraiser; but the NRSC actually raised more money last month than the DSCC; and the DCCC raised only about 200K more than the NRCC. While the cash-on-hand edge for the GOP is less than it was last month’s, it’s because the Democrats are still not retiring their debt, which is 4x the GOP’s.
| Group | Raised | CoH | Debt |
| RNC | 5.82 | 21.55 | 0.00 |
| DNC | 8.37 | 12.14 | 5.60 |
| NRSC | 3.50 | 3.70 | 0.00 |
| DSCC | 3.45 | 4.00 | 4.17 |
| NRCC | 3.24 | 3.73 | 4.00 |
| DCCC | 3.44 | 5.01 | 6.67 |
| GOP | 12.56 | 28.98 | 4.00 |
| Democrats | 15.26 | 21.15 | 16.44 |
When Democrats gained a firm lock on all the power in Washington, one thing that seemed sure to follow was a huge edge in fundraising. After all, Barack Obama is a one-man money machine, and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi would surely be able to raise tons of cash from industries worried how Congress might treat them. Instead, their fundraising has been lackluster - and Barack Obama doesn’t seem to be helping:
Thursday night’s joint Democratic fundraiser headlined by President Barack Obama is expected to bring in a total of $3 million for the two Democratic campaign committees, according to a party strategist familiar with the event.
The figure is surprisingly low considering Obama’s vaunted fundraising ability during the 2008 presidential campaign and the fact that this is the first joint fundraiser benefiting Congressional Democrats since the party regained control of the White House. It’s also about $11.5 million less than what GOP officials said they raised last week for the National Republican Congressional Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee at a dinner featuring former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.)…
Growing up in New York, I recall an old commercial for the lottery that sought to sucker in the math-challenged by telling them ‘you gotta be in it to win it.’ While I still consider that an indefensible way for a state to get people to throw away their money, it’s undoubtedly true when it comes to political campaigns. You may be unable to predict the political climate months before election day (or even days before). But if you hope to have any chance of winning seats that may be unexpectedly within reach, you have to have credible candidates. So far this cycle, it’s the Republican campaign committees that are winning the race to find strong candidates for potentially-winnable races:
It’s not just the Senate races, however. The National Republican Congressional Committee has announced sought-after candidates early and often. These include Martha Roby (Alabama’s 2nd District), Van Tran (California 47th), Charles Djou (Hawaii 1st), Vaughn Ward (Idaho 1st), not to mention rematches in two races that would allow Republicans to recapture seats lost in 2008; Andy Harris vs. Freshman Rep. Frank Kratovil (Maryland 1st) and former Rep. Steve Chabot facing the man who defeated him, Rep. Steve Driehaus (Ohio 1st).
If you haven’t read Senator Cornyn’s post from this morning on the NRSC endorsement of Governor Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio in the open Republican primary for retiring Senator Mel Martinez’s seat, go here and read it now, and be sure to thank the Senator for taking the time to post a response to our concerns about his actions and decisions as head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
I have a few comments and concerns about the Senator’s actions, and about the ideas expressed in his post here today.
Florida Governor Charlie Crist (R) may be a shoo-in for Mel Martinez’s Senate seat in terms of sheer electability. However, it strikes me as being very vaild to ask whether we (i.e., the GOP) want to elect someone to represent our party and our brand in most exclusive club in the nation who is a proven tax-hiker and runaway spending supporter.
Further, if, as Senator Cornyn has said, blowback over tax increases and failed Stimulus spending promises to be a major factor in bringing out Republican voters (and in pulling independent voters away from the Democratic party) in 2010, do we really — and think about this, please — do we really want our nominee for the U.S. Senate to be someone who was on the wrong side of both of those issues?
As the Senator said in his post, the GOP isn’t a monolith; no successful party is. The Republican parties of Texas and Georgia don’t equal the Republican parties of New York and Minnesota, because values and people are different in those different places, and so a Republican won’t necessarily be the same thing in both. Unfortunately, in trying to make his case about this reality, Senator Cornyn decided to adopt the Obama-esque tactic of hastily constructing a strawman and swatting it down for the purpose of looking both smart and reasonable.
