Record cash flows to campaigns
WASHINGTON – The Bush and Kerry campaigns, the two national parties and independent political groups have raised more than $1 billion so far this year, almost double the presidential cash collected at this stage in the 2000 election season, campaign reports released Friday show.
The contributions range from the huge, $10 million-plus donations to new “shadow party” groups, to a record volume of small contributions being made both through the Internet and direct mail.
The unprecedented fund-raising efforts come despite enactment of the most significant campaign finance reform in a quarter century. They are being driven, strategists say, by unusually strong sentiments within the rank and file of both parties.
“You have two very excited, angry, involved groups of partisans who see everything at stake,” said Gary Jacobson, a campaign finance expert at the University of California at San Diego. “Passions are high and the elections are dead even. That is a scenario for shaking money loose from people.”
Nearly half of the $1.475 billion has been raised by the campaigns of President Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry. Each rejected public financing during the primary season, so he could break the $44.8 million spending limit that goes with the taxpayer subsidy.
That has allowed the two to raise unlimited amounts. Each has already broken presidential fund-raising records, Bush collecting $242 million and Kerry at least $233.5 million. Each has far outpaced the record Bush set in 2000 when he raised $94.1 million.
The most dramatic shift, however, has been at the Republican and Democratic national committees, which in this cycle were for the first time barred from collecting unlimited “soft money” contributions from corporations, unions and the wealthy.
Despite the ban, the RNC and DNC are far ahead of where they were at roughly this stage in 2000. The exact difference cannot be determined because the parties reported quarterly in 2000 and report monthly now.
Much of the loss of soft money has been made up with a surge of small-donor support. At the DNC and RNC, contributions of less than $200 have more than doubled from the 1999-2000 cycle – from $26.2 million to $64.4 million at the DNC, and from $58 million to $117 million at the RNC.
“There are a lot more people willing to give relatively small amounts of money when the issues are sharply drawn and the two candidates are fighting over what people care about,” said Michael J. Malbin, executive director of the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute.
The RNC and DNC reported Friday raising $390.5 million from Jan. 1, 2003, through the end of last month: $245.3 million at the RNC and $145.2 million at the DNC. In 2000, when the parties could collect unlimited soft money contributions, they had raised a combined $284.1 million through the end of June.
In addition to the candidates and parties, the relatively new, independent groups active in the presidential race – called “527s,” for a section of the tax code – have sharply boosted fund raising and spending. Those linked to the presidential campaign collected $153.9 million through June 30.
Of this, $144.9 million was raised by pro-Democratic independent groups and $9 million by pro-Republican groups. The GOP groups began aggressive fund raising only in late May, and a better picture of their cash position will emerge on Oct. 20, the next reporting period.
Jim Jordan, a spokesman for the two most successful Democratic 527s – America Coming Together and the Media Fund – said the large amounts of money being raised this year “are a sign of both a very energized electorate and the increasingly sophisticated mechanics of political fund raising. More people want to give, and the campaigns and groups are better at finding those people.”