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CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
April 21, 2008 – 5:34 a.m.

House Dems Outraise Republicans, Again

By Greg Giroux, CQ Staff

The month of March provided an eight-figure take for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the political organization of the majority Democrats in the U.S. House: the DCCC collected $10.1 million last month, ahead of the $7.1 million raised by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), according to reports both organizations filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

The DCCC and NRCC, which are two of the primary actors in this year’s campaign for the House, file their campaign finance reports on a monthly schedule. But because the month of March also coincided with the end of a three-month quarter, when fundraising tends to intensify, the parties raised larger sums last month than in nearly every other month thus far in the 2007-08 campaign cycle. In fact, the NRCC’s March take was its largest one-month haul in the 15 full months of this election cycle. The DCCC’s March take was exceeded only by the $12.1 million it raised in March 2007 and the $10.4 million it raised in June 2007.

By raising more and also spending less last month than its GOP counterpart, the DCCC widened its advantage in campaign cash on hand over the NRCC to $44.3 million to $7.2 million, a ratio of greater than six to one. The cash-rich DCCC will begin to spend these tens of millions of dollars this fall, primarily to air television and radio advertisements and publish mail pieces in districts in which Republicans are the defending party.

Both party committees raised more from individual donors, who are legally allowed to contribute up to $28,500 per year to a national party committee, than from other sources. One notable contribution to the DCCC was the $28,500 donated on March 31 by Leslie Walker Burlock, a donor from San Francisco who is backing the presidential campaign of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama . Obama leads New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in “pledged” convention delegates but needs more unpledged “superdelegates” to clinch the nomination. Four days earlier, on March 27, NBC reported that Walker Burlock sent a letter on March 26 to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , who represents San Francisco, that said in part: “I hope and trust that when the Super Delegates cast their votes at the convention they will represent the will of the voters as you have called for them to do.”

The DCCC also outperformed the NRCC in the collection of campaign funds from the accounts of members of Congress, who can give as many campaign funds to the national party committees as they wish. The top givers to the DCCC last month were Robert A. Brady , who represents the Philadelphia-centered 1st District, and David R. Obey , who represents Wisconsin’s 7th District and who is chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Both men transferred $200,000 to the DCCC and are overwhelmingly favored to win re-election this November.

The biggest money-giver on the Republican side was California Rep. David Dreier , who transferred $165,000 from a campaign committee that still had $1.9 million cash on hand at the end of March.

The DCCC also got a $100,000 transfer from the campaign committee of former Massachusetts Rep. Martin T. Meehan (1993-2007), who resigned last July to become a university executive. Meehan still has $4.8 million sitting in his campaign account.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC)

• Total receipts, March 2008: $10.1 million

• Total receipts, year to date: $87.6 million

• Total disbursements, March 2008: $3.8 million

• Total disbursements, year to date: $44 million

• Cash-on-hand, March 31: $44.3 million
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