The vast majority of those declines were accounted for by the absence of large donors who, strategists say, have shut their checkbooks in part because Democrats have heightened their attacks on the conduct of major financial firms and set their sights on rewriting the laws that regulate their behavior. As the battle over President Obama's effort to overhaul the health-care system reached a fever pitch this summer, the Republican committees combined to bring in $1.7 million more than their Democratic counterparts in August. The Democratic committees have watched their receipts plummet by a combined 20 percent with little more than a year to go before the November 2010 midterm elections.
Large-scale defeats in the midterms could be a crippling blow to the ambitious agenda mapped out by Obama's top advisers. "If they take them
Joe knows what he's trying to do. Get re-elected.
Democrats said a struggling economy is only partly to blame for the poor fundraising performance and acknowledged a more perilous problem: satisfaction among activists that the party now holds the White House, 60 votes in the Senate and 60 percent of the House.
Everybody that thought they were going to get everything they wanted has been disappointed.
"There was a little sense of complacency that set in despite our best efforts to warn people," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "We made it very clear: Beware."
Maybe not just complacency, Chris; how about arrogance? No shortage of that, is there?
Democrats had watched the party's campaign committees rake in increasing amounts of money throughout this decade. They used that financial edge to boost their candidates with seven- and sometimes eight-figure advertising budgets, often using that money to run negative ads that candidates shy away from airing. Now there are signs that such advantages may not be there next year.