There’s one silver lining for party committees when it comes to retirements: Departing incumbents typically have a bundle of scrilla saved up that they can, if they’re so inclined, donate in bulk to their party’s House and Senate campaign arms. (They can also make normal, FEC-limited donations to other campaigns, or give the money to charity.) With all the retirements on both sides, there’s a lot of money floating out there, so let’s take a look at who’s got the bucks.
First up, the House. We’ve compiled cash-on-hand figures for all members who are not running for re-election or have resigned this cycle, with one exception (more on that below):
District | Incumbent | Status | CoH |
---|---|---|---|
AL-07 | Artur Davis | Running for governor | $42,889 |
AR-01 | Marion Berry | Retiring | $572,803 |
AR-02 | Vic Snyder | Retiring | $4,182 |
CA-10 | Ellen Tauscher | Resigned | $0 |
CA-32 | Hilda Solis | Resigned | $227,097 |
CA-33 | Diane Watson | Retiring | $72,727 |
FL-19 | Robert Wexler | Resigned | $637,967 |
HI-01 | Neil Abercrombie | Running for governor | $453,188 |
IL-05 | Rahm Emanuel | Resigned | $1,179,094 |
KS-03 | Dennis Moore | Retiring | $443,115 |
RI-01 | Patrick Kennedy | Retiring | $451,740 |
TN-06 | Bart Gordon | Retiring | $1,239,633 |
TN-08 | John Tanner | Retiring | $1,421,767 |
WA-03 | Brian Baird | Retiring | $551,665 |
Total: | $7,297,867 |
We haven’t listed members running for Senate because they can (and generally do) transfer all of their House money over to their Senate campaigns. However, depending on state law, members running for other office (such as governor) may or may not be able to port over their House warchests. Two Dems fall into that category. As you can surmise from the CoH totals, Alabama law permitted Artur Davis to switch his federal money over to his state account.
Neil Abercrombie wasn’t so lucky. He had hoped to do the same, but a state committee barred him from doing so back in August. Abercrombie has managed to whittle his account down by half since then (he has refunded many of his donors’ contributions), but if he’s looking to do his colleagues in the House a solid, he can give the balance to the DCCC.
A special comment must be made here about ex-Rep. Robert Wexler, who announced back in October that he was stepping down from Congress in order to pursue other opportunities. At the end of September, Wexler had nearly a million dollars in the bank. Since then, he went on a $310,000 spending spree, rewarding consultants, pollsters, fundraisers, and other campaign associates with some very generous payments. Wexler did give a handful of donations to some of his former colleagues, but he failed to give a dime to the DCCC. Robert Wexler is shamefully letting his party down by not putting his ample campaign account to productive use at his party’s greatest hour of need. If he doesn’t want this to become a permanent black mark on his record, this attitude needs to change.
That said, let’s not let Rahm Emanuel off the hook, either – he’s hoarding over a million bucks in his dormant House account, no doubt waiting to use that nest egg for an eventual return to elected office. But if Rahm is serious about serving his President’s agenda, he might want to consider cutting a generous check to DCCC. In a year like this, we can’t afford to have guys like Rahm holding back. Does Rahm Emanuel even care about retaining control of the House of Representatives?
House Republicans:
District | Incumbent | Status | CoH |
---|---|---|---|
AZ-03 | John Shadegg | Retiring | $111,903 |
CA-19 | George Radanovich | Retiring | $192,558 |
FL-12 | Adam Putnam | Running for FL Ag. Comm’r | $38,289 |
FL-21 | Lincoln Diaz-Balart | Retiring | $259,473 |
GA-09 | Nathan Deal | Running for governor | $0 |
IN-04 | Steve Buyer | Retiring | $400,069 |
MI-02 | Peter Hoekstra | Running for governor | $33,385 |
MI-03 | Vern Ehlers | Retiring | $489,646 |
NY-23 | John McHugh | Resigned | $124,572 |
OK-05 | Mary Fallin | Running for governor | $84,084 |
SC-01 | Henry Brown | Retiring | $724,324 |
SC-03 | Gresham Barrett | Running for governor | $268,121 |
TN-03 | Zach Wamp | Running for governor | $222,931 |
Total: | $2,949,355 |
Republicans have slimmer pickings, but that still adds up to nearly $3 million that the NRCC would love to poach out of these idle accounts. Let’s hope these members take after Rahm!
Senate Dems:
State | Senator | Status | CoH |
---|---|---|---|
CO | Ken Salazar | Resigned | $1,320,792 |
CT | Chris Dodd | Retiring | $3,439,831 |
IL | Roland Burris | Retiring | $1,938 |
IN | Evan Bayh | Retiring | $12,987,399 |
ND | Byron Dorgan | Retiring | $4,226,616 |
NY | Hillary Clinton | Resigned | $3,637,036 |
Total: | $25,613,612 |
Yep – $25.6 million (including Clinton’s presidential account), with the biggest chunk of that coming from Evan Bayh. You’d think that Bayh, after putting his party in a bind with his surprise retirement decision, might feel compelled to share some of his resources to the DSCC, but the man is a notorious miser. Perhaps this time, though, he can be shamed into making a meaningful contribution to the Democratic cause.
Senate Republicans:
State | Senator | Status | CoH |
---|---|---|---|
FL | Resigned | Mel Martinez | $317,422 |
KS | Running for governor | Sam Brownback | $4,547 |
KY | Retiring | Jim Bunning | $422,122 |
MO | Retiring | Kit Bond | $575,860 |
NH | Retiring | Judd Gregg | $752,956 |
OH | Retiring | George Voinovich | $1,622,168 |
Total: | $3,695,075 |
While the Republicans have less to work with there, $3.7 million isn’t exactly chump change. The bottom line, though, is that Democrats are facing an incredibly tough election environment, and departing House & Senate Dems are sitting on an enormous $33 million stockpile. They need to help their party now.
Can Bayh use that for a gubernatorial run? And I thought Hillary’s presidential campaign left her in deep debt. What happened there?
Not sure of the others but Ken Salazar and H Clinton are both current cabinet members. My impression is that cabinet members generally aren’t involved in politics. I don’t know if Pres Obama has different rules for them or not. Its especially difficult for Sec Clinton to do anything even remotely political without the media going crazy looking for what it all means. But the others- Dodd, Bayh, Dorgan- should help out if they can legally. Of course its still possible that they may be looking at future contests and want the money they’ve raised for themselves.
I don’t know if one can draw that conclusion unless the numbers are severely dissimilar from what the professionals were paid in prior cycles.
Here’s my question:
Senator Menendez, Congressman Van Hollen, what are y’all doing to collect this money?
That’s just the cover story. In reality, he wasted all his campaign money on cocaine and hookers.
should start fundraising for once and transfer it to the DCCC/DSCC as well. My Twin City reps, Reps. Ellison and McCollum both could easily raise an extra $250k to transfer to the committee.
before he passed away?
And what becomes of that account?
This article was mentioned in Pwire.
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Check the records, man…Rahm has given more money than anyone but Pelosi to the DCCC, to individual Democratic candidates…and to the Democratic Party…
He has raised and donated millions. Your criticism is unfounded.