Putting Our Money Where Our Mouth Is
The conservative revolt is hurting GOP fundraising, according to the Evans-Novak Report:
State of the Parties: Indictments, investigations and Iraq continue to make life miserable for the GOP. Things have become bad enough that the California state party and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's (R) office complained publicly about President George W. Bush's planned visit the state two weeks before the Nov. 8 special election. Although it is common for a governor to shun an unpopular president, it is highly unusual for party officials to talk about it in public.
The GOP's precarious national situation is having two major effects. One is to weaken the GOP advantage in some aspects of party fundraising, and the other is to push the party to the Right.
1) While Republican Party committees continue to hold the upper hand in fundraising overall, there is no question the bad news of late has weakened their position vis-à-vis the Democrats. September fundraising for two of the three Republican committees was below that of the Democrats. The Democratic Senatorial Committee, which has been in the lead for months, took in $4.1 million vs. the Republicans' $3.3 million.
More surprisingly, the Democrats' House campaign arm (DCCC) raised $5.4 million in comparison to the $3.9 million raised by its Republican counterpart (NRCC). The NRCC had been leading by a wide margin and continues to hold a large advantage in cash on hand.
The exception was the Republican National Committee, which continued its superiority, albeit by much less than usual -- $6 million in September to the Democrats' $4 million. The RNC now holds an advantage in cash on hand of almost 6-to-1, having raised twice as much money as the DNC so far this year.
2) The other effect of a weak Republican establishment is that it forces party leaders to tack to the Right where they can and give their base something to be happy about. In recent days, the Administration has appointed a supply-sider as Federal Reserve chief and toughened its stance on border enforcement. Republican congressional leaders have embraced conservative priorities on gun rights and budget reform (the latter is stalled for now, but will come up again with the approval of leadership). The Senate brought a gun rights bill to the top of its agenda this month and voted to deny members of Congress a pay increase this year.
I`ve warned that the course taken by the President (and the knock-kneed Senate) is splitting the Party, and the GOP is now reaping the fruits of conservative wrath. The President and Establishment Republicans thought they had the conservatives in their hip-pockets, and have been pushing the ``big tent`` approach as the method to win elections and build a dominating majority. This was shortsighted, at best; it meant betraying their core constituents. I`ve always said that President Bush is a conservative moderate, and I`m sure he really believes ``the great middle`` is the heart and soul of America. I believe he`s wrong, and that the popularity of Ronald Reagan proves it.
Even if the President is correct (I think we can no longer refer to him as RIGHT) our job is to advance our agenda, and if political expediency requires that we settle for no loaf at all (or the crust) we no longer have a reason to support him or the Republican Party. They are means to an end, not the end itself. The President seems to think that we should be satisfied with political success alone. He doesn`t seem to grasp that WE put him in office to advance our wishes, not his, not the Rinos, not anybody else`s. If he and his party fail us, we will be forced to look elsewhere.
That said, I have never believed in the theory of allowing Marxists to win because we don`t like Pinochet. We need to support Republicans (for now) at the ballot boxes, lest we end up with the lunatic left in charge. Still, I`m encouraged by this dropoff of donations; this sends a far more powerful message than any amount of blogging or other chatter; it tells the Republicans that they could LOSE in the elections if they continue on their present course. Hopefully they will heed our warnings.
A Conservative walk-out from the Republican party will be a cataclysm. It`s nice to dream of establishing a conservative third party, but our system really doesn`t foster this kind of thing and we would probably find ourselves on the outside looking in if we were to walk.
Consider that our ``nuclear option``.
State of the Parties: Indictments, investigations and Iraq continue to make life miserable for the GOP. Things have become bad enough that the California state party and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's (R) office complained publicly about President George W. Bush's planned visit the state two weeks before the Nov. 8 special election. Although it is common for a governor to shun an unpopular president, it is highly unusual for party officials to talk about it in public.
The GOP's precarious national situation is having two major effects. One is to weaken the GOP advantage in some aspects of party fundraising, and the other is to push the party to the Right.
1) While Republican Party committees continue to hold the upper hand in fundraising overall, there is no question the bad news of late has weakened their position vis-à-vis the Democrats. September fundraising for two of the three Republican committees was below that of the Democrats. The Democratic Senatorial Committee, which has been in the lead for months, took in $4.1 million vs. the Republicans' $3.3 million.
More surprisingly, the Democrats' House campaign arm (DCCC) raised $5.4 million in comparison to the $3.9 million raised by its Republican counterpart (NRCC). The NRCC had been leading by a wide margin and continues to hold a large advantage in cash on hand.
The exception was the Republican National Committee, which continued its superiority, albeit by much less than usual -- $6 million in September to the Democrats' $4 million. The RNC now holds an advantage in cash on hand of almost 6-to-1, having raised twice as much money as the DNC so far this year.
2) The other effect of a weak Republican establishment is that it forces party leaders to tack to the Right where they can and give their base something to be happy about. In recent days, the Administration has appointed a supply-sider as Federal Reserve chief and toughened its stance on border enforcement. Republican congressional leaders have embraced conservative priorities on gun rights and budget reform (the latter is stalled for now, but will come up again with the approval of leadership). The Senate brought a gun rights bill to the top of its agenda this month and voted to deny members of Congress a pay increase this year.
I`ve warned that the course taken by the President (and the knock-kneed Senate) is splitting the Party, and the GOP is now reaping the fruits of conservative wrath. The President and Establishment Republicans thought they had the conservatives in their hip-pockets, and have been pushing the ``big tent`` approach as the method to win elections and build a dominating majority. This was shortsighted, at best; it meant betraying their core constituents. I`ve always said that President Bush is a conservative moderate, and I`m sure he really believes ``the great middle`` is the heart and soul of America. I believe he`s wrong, and that the popularity of Ronald Reagan proves it.
Even if the President is correct (I think we can no longer refer to him as RIGHT) our job is to advance our agenda, and if political expediency requires that we settle for no loaf at all (or the crust) we no longer have a reason to support him or the Republican Party. They are means to an end, not the end itself. The President seems to think that we should be satisfied with political success alone. He doesn`t seem to grasp that WE put him in office to advance our wishes, not his, not the Rinos, not anybody else`s. If he and his party fail us, we will be forced to look elsewhere.
That said, I have never believed in the theory of allowing Marxists to win because we don`t like Pinochet. We need to support Republicans (for now) at the ballot boxes, lest we end up with the lunatic left in charge. Still, I`m encouraged by this dropoff of donations; this sends a far more powerful message than any amount of blogging or other chatter; it tells the Republicans that they could LOSE in the elections if they continue on their present course. Hopefully they will heed our warnings.
A Conservative walk-out from the Republican party will be a cataclysm. It`s nice to dream of establishing a conservative third party, but our system really doesn`t foster this kind of thing and we would probably find ourselves on the outside looking in if we were to walk.
Consider that our ``nuclear option``.
posted by Timothy Birdnow | 5:04 AM
3 Comments:
People wanting limited government -- not just smaller, but limited government -- and people who want maximized human freedom should long ago have quit subsidizing the increasingly fascistic Republican Party and its lying promises.
Alas, hope beats eternal, and some of those advocates of liberty continued to be suckered by the Republican Party.
Apparently they are, slowly, waking up and learning their lesson.
Next step: Join and support the Libertarian Party.
I can't argue with the angnst over some of the actions of this President, but on the whole we are better off with Bush than we would be with Gore or Kerry - this is just undeniable. All Presidents govern to the middle (Reagan may have been the exception) Clinton surely did as did Bush the elder. But I can't get in with this "unpopular President" bit. His approval ratings are at 42% which is much higher than Clinton, Bush I, Carter, Ford, Nixon and Johnson at this point in the Presidencies.
He did his best to get us tax cuts, introduced a Social Security reform debate, has put many good conservative judges on the bench and most of all changed our policies toward Islamic terrorism, Arafat and other Middle East dictators and freed the world from the Taliban and Saddam, as well as fostered economic policies that have resulted in strong growth. What is not conservative about all that?
I think once again it is the Republican Senate that has failed to support the President on key issues and has backed off on fiscal conservatism totally.
The fund raising successes that the Republican Party so happily crowed about where almost entirely due to people making small donations ($200.00 or less). They are far greater in number than are those big money contributors in the league of a George Soros. These are also (I suspect) exactly the contributors who have withdrawn their support. The inept handling of every aspect of the domestic policy agenda by this president and spineless senate will hurt the party for years if there is no return to the fundamentals of conservatism.
Temporary tax cuts, spending at historically high levels, and weak choices for rare and influential positions, (yes I’m referring to Harriet) show once and for all that it’s time to dump the compassion and get hard-core conservative. There is still time for George to save his party and his presidency but he will have to get tough about it and “new-tone” it down and get-r-done. He can’t count on the Senate to do for him he has to lead them and so far, domestically he’s not shown the requisite guts to force them to follow.
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