I knew this was bullshit when I read it in February:
Lawmakers with direct ties to Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) operations say more members than usual are clinging to every dollar instead of paying their dues.
“The pressure will definitely ramp up in the spring,” a senior Democrat said. …
Leadership aides said the DCCC is right where it needs to be….
We’re days away from summer, and:
House Democratic lawmakers are holding onto their campaign cash despite pleas from the campaign committee for money to help the party, a reflection of the nervousness among incumbents.
Only 16 of the 254 members of the Democratic caucus have paid their full obligation to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press. Of those, dozens have outstanding balances of at least $125,000.
Same old shit, except now we’re less than five months away from election day. And the DCCC is still pretending like nothing’s wrong – “A spokesman for the group played down the debts,” relates the AP – but I’d bet good money they are the very ones responsible for leaking their own dues spreadsheet to the media. Of course, what they won’t do is share that list with activists, who would actually put direct pressure on members of Congress to pay their dues. I guess they’d rather just be passive-aggressive about it.
Personally, I feel like we’ve seen an insufficiently partisan spine over at the D-Trip, ever since Chris Van Hollen took over last cycle. SSP readers are well aware of the treachery perpetrated by Red-to-Blue chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz in 2008, which Van Hollen permitted under his watch. This cycle, Van Hollen’s apparent refusal to engage in bare-knuckled tactics to shake money out of his caucus is inexcusable. Rahm Emanuel would never have abided this.
What did DWS do as Red-to-Blue chair?
I can’t stand these people in non-competitive districts hoarding cash when there’s a real risk of Democrats losing the House. Don’t they care about holding their committee chairmanships?
Van Hollen needs to help activists in the districts pressure their representatives, as you say.
is getting really old. How can CVH let this happen, if he wants to be speaker some day I don’t see how this will help him. Shame on him, shame on everyone there. We don’t need this, David your assessment on Rahm not letting this happen is right on.
The DCCC is still really far ahead of the NRCC and outraised its counterpart, the DSCC, by over $18 million (actually, the DCCC is that much ahead of the NRCC as well). Yeah, I’d like for more incumbents to give money to the DCCC, but I think there’s just a bit of an overreaction here.
Shoot, you should be taking the DSCC to task before taking the DCCC to task (I’m looking at you, Evan Bayh).
When we were in the minority, it was disgusting for members to hold onto cash, a sign they’d rather have a larger war chest that win back the majority.
But now? Smart move is to hold on.
That’s why the DCCC isn’t making a stink, it isn’t going to change anything and would make them look impotent for begging publicly.
And really, between Air Force One and the Speaker’s gavel, the DCCC should have plenty of cash to waste in vain on protecting crappy incumbents.
if you were to post this on DailyKos, you’d probably get several comments along the lines of, “good, the DCCC is just gonna waste it all on Blue Dogs anyway”.
What that says about our current situation, I’m not sure yet.