The Arkanssouri Blog.: But wasn't the whole reason for him becoming DNC chair that he was a fundraising genius?

Saturday, November 12, 2005

But wasn't the whole reason for him becoming DNC chair that he was a fundraising genius?

Turns out the Doogie Howser of fundraising Howard Dean ain't.

1 Comments:

Anonymous said...: Not really, but for those following the matter in only the MSM, that misimpression is understandable. The "whole reason" had more to do with the cause of his fund raising effectiveness, than with that effect as such. (On a rightist blog, that would be "per se", eh?)

And here are a number of problems with the Washington Post pseudo analysis, anyway.

First, they compare a figures for a Presidential election cycle, which mobilizes people outside the normal party political activists, to a Congressional/Gubernatorial cycle which mobilizes people who follow politics more closely or are tightly focused on local issues. To get a better view, the (inflation adjusted) figures for 2001 would have to be inclulded.

Second, they distort the figures they do provide, as demonstrated by the table below:

Year
Party / Difference
Funds Raised
Cash on Hand

2001
Democrats
na

Republicans
na

Demo as % of Repu
na

2003
Democrats $31 million
$9.9 million

Republicans $80 million
$27 million

Demo as % of Repu 38%
37%
2005
Democrats $42 million $6.8 million

Republicans $81 million
$34 million

Demo as % of Repu 51%
20%
Change
(in basis points)
+11
-17

Sure, it would be nice to have more money in the bank. But without knowing the balances at the beginning of January, or the specific amounts and purposes of expenditures in the intervening nine months (such as $5 million dedicated to whupping the Repus in Virginia), I cannot say that the decline in the DNC balance indicates any problem at all, let alone a significant one. In fact is is the INCREASED effectiveness of fundraising under Governor Dean's leadership that has made possible the funding of the 50 state strategy and such focused efforts as that in Virginia.

The most glaring failure of the WaPost article is the fact that the significant improvement on fund raising effectiveness of the DNC over the nine month period runs directly against the implication of the Washington Post headline and the tenor of its psuedo reportage in this article. In other words, the Chris Cillizza "Special to The Washington Post" report is a carefully crafted lie, calculated to attack Chairman Dean's effectivness, and based only on the thinnest thread of twisted fact.

Who is this "Chris Cillizza", anyway?; 12:48 PM