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Satans Mark/Cashless Title: White House, Senate Democrats clash over campaign cash Senate Democrats are increasingly concerned that President Barack Obama’s campaign money machine is sucking up so much cash that it will cut into the party’s aggressive campaign to hold on to the Senate next year, several Democratic sources say. Democratic senators have already pressed Obama campaign officials — including campaign manager Jim Messina — not to lock up the richest Democratic donors, but the presidential campaign declined to make such a promise. Majority Leader Harry Reid and other top Senate Democrats have also asked for at least $10 million in aid from the Democratic National Committee as well as the president’s reelection campaign to help underwrite expensive TV ad campaigns and on-the-ground efforts for crucial Senate races in 2012, according to Democratic sources. In a recent meeting in Washington, Reid, along with Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.); Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the third-highest ranking Democrat; and Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), chairwoman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, made their pitch to Messina, according to Democratic sources. Messina would not agree to the request not to max out big donors, and no decision was made on the amount of financial backing that Senate Democrats will get from the DNC and the Obama-Biden campaign. Democrats believe Obama’s robust campaign infrastructure will benefit a number of their Senate candidates in pivotal presidential swing states, but it’s not clear how much emphasis the president’s team will place in a handful of other states where Senate races could determine the balance of power in the chamber next Congress. “We have a huge number of incumbents who are up this cycle and a lot of them have taken tough votes to enact significant portions of this president’s agenda, and I think that there is a sense that there should be an all-hands-on-deck approach to keep the Senate in Democratic hands,” said one Democratic official familiar with the meeting. The meeting between Messina and Democratic senators shows that fights over campaign cash are not always straight Republican-Democratic contests. As the 2012 campaign gets started in earnest, there is increased competition for donors across the board as Democrats in the House and Senate scramble to raise money while the Obama-Biden team is vacuuming up money from wealthy Democrats who may soon max out their contributions. Adding more competition in the race for cash, Democratic operatives have formed a number of new third-party groups, known as super PACs, each of which have sometimes competing goals of electing more House Democrats, Senate Democrats or Obama himself. These operatives are often competing for the same list of wealthy donors. All this comes at a time of growing concern among Democrats that Obama’s decreasing popularity may limit the amount donors are willing to give to Democratic campaigns. While nowhere near as intense as the donor scramble going on among GOP presidential hopefuls, Democratic strategists and fundraisers are aware that donor dollars are especially precious in a struggling economy. “The biggest problem of all is that people are frustrated and disillusioned,” said Peter Buttenwieser, a major Senate Democratic donor and 2008 and 2012 Obama bundler. But Buttenwieser, a philanthropist who is heir to the Lehman Brothers securities fortune, predicted that Democratic incumbents would be well-financed this cycle. Still, relations between the Obama administration and Senate Democrats have grown increasingly sour in recent months, and many Democrats were disappointed over the president’s eagerness to cut a debt ceiling deal with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio.). There is also concern that the president and his top emissaries have been pinning the blame for Washington dysfunction more on Congress as a whole, rather than specifically on their Republican adversaries. One major point of contention among Democratic fundraisers centers on the “Presidential Partners” program. Under that program, donors who pledge $75,800 to the Obama Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee operated by the DNC and Obama for America, can attend private briefings, sometimes with Obama himself. As part of this effort, donors give $5,000 to Obama’s reelection campaign, along with $61,600 to the DNC and $9,200 to a new fundraising entity that will spend money on down-ballot races in the states. Continue Reading Text Size -+reset Listen “That has ruffled some feathers,” said a senior Democratic officials, referring to the push for big donors. Democratic senators are deeply concerned that continuing with this program will max out top Democratic donors for the rest of the 2012 election cycle — and they privately want the Obama team to abandon the initiative altogether. At the very least, the Democratic senators want donors to give the $9,200 to the DSCC, rather than the new statewide entity, the sources say. Obama’s reelection campaign and the DNC raised more than $86 million by June 30, with a large chunk of that coming from donors giving the maximum contribution. Obama may raise upwards of $1 billion for his reelection, smashing all existing fundraising records, though administration officials insist that’s not their goal. Much of the money in the last quarter came from 619 deep-pocketed donors who maxed out their donations and contributed a total of $22.1 million. There were more than 550,000 small-dollar donors who shelled out less than $70 each on average. At the same time, Senate Democrats have to defend 23 seats in 2012, versus only 10 for Senate Republicans, with some of these fights taking place in high-dollar TV markets like Connecticut, Florida and New Jersey. While they complain about the cash drain from the presidential campaign, some Senate Democrats may see an upside — many of Obama’s key swing states overlap with the most vulnerable Senate Democratic seats, including Ohio, Florida, Nevada, Virginia and New Mexico, so plenty of money will flow to those states. But there are other states where Obama’s campaign may not spend much money yet feature tough Senate races, like in Missouri and Montana, putting incumbents like Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) in a tough spot. “We’re working closely, as we have in the past cycles, to elect Democratic senators and to retain the Democratic majority,” said Matt Canter, DSCC spokesman. Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for Obama’s reelection team, said the campaign urges its donors to give money to Democratic congressional candidates as well. “We encourage our donors to give to Democratic congressional candidates and communicate frequently with their committees,” LaBolt said. “With special interests now able to raise unlimited funds in their effort to defeat the president — with some estimates saying they’ll raise $500 million — there’s no doubt that we’re building a robust fundraising operation in order to establish the largest grass-roots infrastructure possible.” A Democratic official said the president’s campaign infrastructure will help Democratic candidates up-and-down the ballot “as it did in 2008 when Democrats gained 7 Senate seats and 21 House seats.” The Obama-Biden campaign gave more than $12 million to the DSCC and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2010, according to records filed with the Federal Election Commission. The DSCC has raised more than $23.4 million through June 30, has $9 million in cash on hand but is $2.2 million in debt. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is tasked with winning back the Senate for the GOP, reported $3.7 million in cash on hand with no debt through June 30. Jonathan Allen contributed to this report.
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