GOP cash woes threaten fall gains

[Geee]

Politico:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Republican National Committee is entering the fall election season with dire financial problems and, to an unprecedented degree, will be forced to rely on outside groups to fund activities traditionally paid for by the national party.

While embattled RNC Chairman Michael Steele and a top aide sought to use the party’s summer meeting here to publicly put the best face on the cash shortage, senior Republicans expressed grave concern behind the scenes that their fundraising deficiencies may be the difference between a good election year and a great one.



With $11 million on hand at the end of June — and about $2 million in reported debt — the RNC’s paid get-out-the-vote (GOTV) effort will be limited to just targeted House races, POLITICO has learned.

And the committee is only going to be able to spend money on those relatively inexpensive House races, thanks to a $10 million line of credit that was approved at the meeting here. Until then, said one incredulous Republican, there was no money available for paid GOTV activities like mailers and automated phone calls.

Even with the line of credit, though, the party can’t afford to assist their many gubernatorial and Senate candidates with any dollars for paid voter contact and will have to effectively outsource that operation.

The expectation — and it’s only that because the party is barred from coordinating with third-party groups — is that the new organizations that have sprung up amid the RNC’s woes will step in to pay for such GOTV efforts in statewide contests.

Senior Republicans are particularly hopeful that American Crossroads, founded in part by Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, is planning to fill the void in turnout funding.

“You're not going to spend $200,000 on micro-targeting if all you're doing is TV ads,” said one top GOP operative, alluding to the money American Crossroads has spent so far to identify voters.

POLITICO reported last month that the third-party group has hired veteran Republican strategist Carl Forti to run a micro-targeting effort and, according to a “concept paper,” would spend $15 million on “targeted grassroots advocacy” — paid voter contact.

The RNC will, though, be able to pay for volunteer GOTV activities for the final three months, such as the costs associated with housing and enabling phone banks, and they already have 285 “Victory” offices to carry out such tasks.

[pollyannaish]

Wow. They've been really hounding us this year, but the state and national party fundraising.

 

We have a policy. In off years we contribute to the national/state parties and in election years we contribute to our chosen candidates directly.

 

It's an itty bitty amount, but we always try to contribute it to where we think it provides us the best return on investment.