CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
June 18, 2009 – 11:45 p.m.
Democrats Welcome Donations, Not Lobbyists
By Adriel Bettelheim and Emily Cadei, CQ Staff
President Obama assumed the mantle of fundraiser-in-chief Thursday evening at a Democratic rally at which money was welcome but lobbyists forbidden, for an evening.
Supporters paid between $5,000 and $30,400 to hear the president implore them to help write “the next great chapter in American history.” The joint fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — the two major congressional fundraising organizations—at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in downtown Washington was heavily anticipated because of the president’s appearance.
But debate over Obama’s ethics rules and the relatively meager $3 million the dinner was estimated to reap, overshadowed even an appearance by Washington’s highest-wattage star.
The Democrats’ haul is far less than the $14.5 million the Republican House and Senate fundraising committees collected at a comparable dinner June 9. Democrats pointed to the featured speaker at that event, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, as a sign that the rival party lacks a fresh message. Yet if one weighs the two events side-by-side, Gingrich, the Georgia Republican tactician who held sway over the party in the 1990s, trumps the Democrat’s fresh-faced 21st century president by a landslide.
Democrats said that it was not right to compare the monetary intake of the two fundraising events.
“They’re very different events,” said one party official, who declined to be named, to speak candidly, likened the Republicans’ event to a huge party rally while the Democrats’ dinner was more low-key. “It’s not even apples and oranges,” the official said, it’s “apples and a gallon of milk.”
The official agreed that restrictions on donations from lobbyists and political action committees also “make a big difference in the dollar amounts.”
But, the official said, the ban is “a one day deal.”
Republicans were quick to attack such a sentiment as hypocritical. “Candidate Obama said lobbyists and special interests will not fund the Democratic Party,” noted Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, but “Democrats are cashing [lobbyist’s] checks as fast as they come in” during the other “364 days a year.”
Indeed, lobbyists were invited to another fundraising event the two campaign groups organized for Friday morning, that will not feature administration officials. The committees did not estimate how much money they expect the $5,000-a-head breakfast “issues conference” to attract. The two events in combination are likely to provide a more accurate sense of how the Republican’s and the Democrat’s marque fundraising events measure up.
Republicans did not ban lobbyists or PACs from participating and donating to their dinner.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on Thursday dismissed suggestions the lobbyist ban was largely cosmetic. He noted that the Democratic National Committee, unlike the two congressional campaign committees, has a similar ban in place.
“We’re the head of the DNC, and they don’t take lobbyists’ money, and the president is not going to be involved in fundraisers where that happens,” Gibbs said.
Obama’s aides said the president dislikes making such appearances, mindful that such fundraising events have the potential of making the president and his party appear beholden to special interests. But Obama did his best to rally the party base, nonetheless.
Obama ticked off a familiar litany of legislation his administration has helped enact, praised congressional Democrats, then noted that signs of an economic recovery have made some Americans cynical about his ambitious and expensive domestic agenda.
“I can’t bring about the change that I promised by myself in the Oval Office. Or just me and Rahm,” Obama said to laughs, alluding to his chief-of-staff, Rahm Emanuel . “Rahm is great, but I need a little more help than that. I need partners in Congress.”
He ridiculed Republican critics of his health care overhaul plan for promoting what he characterized as meager, outdated ideas, such as providing tax cuts to the uninsured.
“Don’t tell me that we’re going to tinker around the edges and that nothing’s going to change,” Obama said.
Acknowledging that tough legislative battles lie ahead, Obama likened enacting his agenda to running a marathon.
“I know years from now that we will look back at this moment as the time when the American people reclaimed together their future and wrote the next great chapter in American history,” Obama said.
Earlier on Thursday, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. addressed the same collection of supporters at a lunch and offered a similar recitation of legislative accomplishments and praise for Democratic leaders in Congress. Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., shared the stage with Obama and Biden at both events.
“We’re not playing to the margins here,” Biden told the assembled, as they dined on soba noodle salad, pan-seared sea bass with braised fennel and a pea puree and passion fruit panna cotta with chocolate mousse and fresh berries. “This is serious change, the House, Senate, the administration, the Democratic Party in Washington is trying to initiate here.”
Despite the Democrats’ hold on power, Republicans are faring much better in the fundraising race this year than they did in the last election cycle. The Republican National Committee has consistently lead all party committees in fundraising. The the first five months of the year have been no exception — a party source confirmed the RNC raised $5.6 million in June to push it’s total receipts to $36.6 million through the end of May. The committee closed the month with $21.5 million on hand.
In contrast, the DNC had only $5.6 million at the end of April, and has raised a total of $22.3 million. The party committee has yet to disclose its May fundraising totals.
The NRCC and NRSC have held their own against their Democratic counterparts, after being vastly out raised and outspent in the 2008 election.
Democrats, meanwhile, believe Obama can still be their trump card in a more challenging fundraising environment leading up to the 2010 election.
“Make no mistake ... the White House understands the stakes of the 2010 midterms, and the importance of having a strong majority,” the party official said.
Indeed, while the $3 million figure may be under whelming by Obama standards, the president has already demonstrated his value to the party’s bottom line.
Obama transferred a total of $8.5 million from his presidential campaign committee to the DCCC and DSCC in November and December of 2008. And he has sent another $10 million from his campaign to the DNC since November 2008.
Obama also headlined a $3 million fundraising event for the DNC in Washington, D.C. in March, and has attended fundraising events for the party and congressional candidates in California, Nevada and Indiana.
Comments
Actually the GOP raised the lowest $$ fundraiser in 5 years. Context is everything.
Supposedly, the lobbyists walked into the dinner as soon as Obama left giving out their checks. What a sham.
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