Much has made about the overall fundraising success of the national parties in the first six months of 2005 and how the national committees compare with each other. One focus has been the overall totals for the DNC and RNC and the fundraising advantage of the Republicans. This has been seen as particularly noteworthy because the DNC surprisingly reached parity with the RNC in overall fundraising during the complete 2004 election cycle.
The FEC release of financial data for the first six months showed, however, that when DNC activity in 2005 is compared with their own results for the same time period in 2003, the DNC is actually raising more funds than it did in the earlier cycle, in spite of (or perhaps because of) there being no presidential campaign now. (Presidential candidates are very active fundraisers in the early months of a presidential cycle – e.g. 2003 – and parties may suffer as a result. So it’s conceivable that parties may have an easier time in the early months of nonpresidential cycles.)
Sources of funds for the parties has been another focus of interest. Much has been made of the impact of the Internet on the ability of political organizations to raise funds in small amounts from more individuals than ever before. As this table shows, this has so far been particularly true for the DNC and DSCC. Overall contributions from individuals to the DNC increased from $17.4 million at this point in 2003 to $27 million in 2005. Nearly all of this increase has come in contributions where the amount of each donation was less than $200. Only one of every four dollars raised by the DNC so far has come in larger amounts (i.e. $200 or more). While the RNC increased its receipts from individuals from $54.5 million in 2003 to $58.7 million this year, small denomination contributions to the RNC have actually declined. Contributions of $200 or more now represent just over one third of all RNC individual contributions, while they totaled only 26.5% in 2003.
This juxtaposition between the national committees continues at the highest contribution amounts permitted from individuals. The DNC has reported receiving $1.6 million so far in contributions of at least $20,000 from individuals, down from just over $2 million in 2003. The RNC, on the other hand, has reported $9.2 million in these largest contributions this year, compared with $4.2 million in 2003. The RNC’s reliance on these largest contributions is also much greater now, with 15.6% of all individual donations now coming in this category, up from 7.7% two years ago. The DNC is much less dependent on these contributions – now 5.9% of their total compared with 11.6% in 2003.
Changes for the Congressional and Senatorial campaign committees have been more mixed. Overall, both the DSCC and DCCC have shown substantial growth in contributions from individuals, and the DSCC has also greatly expanded its funding from contributions of less than $200 each.
All four of the congressional campaign committees (DSCC, NRSC, DCCC, and NRCC) are somewhat more dependent on the largest contribution amounts now than they were at this point in 2003.
One final note on perils of cycle to cycle comparisons. As you can see here, fundraising patterns change dramatically when the election year begins, and the results from these early months may not be very helpful in predicting the ultimate results for the parties in this first nonpresidential cycle after the passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act which outlawed “soft money” for national party organizations.
