Leah had the details of the report. It’s bad for Democrats. I mean how do they even keep the lights on over there. The chasm between the Republican National Convention and their Democratic counterparts is immense. It feels like the distance is akin to that of the entire continent of Asia. The RNC brought in nearly $30 million for September alone, around four times as much at the DNC. And this comes after the GOP’s $125 million haul for the third quarter. Thus far, the RNC has a $300 million war chest for President Donald Trump’s re-election, a number that is making Democrats tremble. It’s a figure that some local operatives feel cannot be matched, even when the full 2020 cycle is kicked into high gear.
It’s the ghosts of 2012, but this time the roles are reversed. No wonder why Obama campaign veterans are worried. The Democrats are the ones gashing and slicing each other to win the nomination, while the Trump machine is able to run a general election campaign. They’re poised to define the 2020 Democratic nominee—actually the entire Democratic Party establishment—before they can get any semblance of a general effort going for themselves. That’s an election killer right there, and we’re not even talking about the Left’s utterly radical, geographically rigid, and immensely unpopular agenda they’re peddling. Its core tenets are simply not winnable issues. Even some Democrats at these debates reportedly were doubting whether they fit in with this Democratic Party.
In the end, the face of the party apparatus, Tom Perez, has been rather lackluster. And it appears his inability to raise money is starting to worry about the rank-and-file. Former South Carolina Democratic Party chair did not mince words with how Perez has performed helming the ship, even though these remarks should have been made in anonymity. And yes, the folks at the RNC and Trump campaign had a good laugh over this one (via Politico) [emphasis mine]:
Best part is that this person didn't even request anonymity. https://t.co/6b50yNgLKx
— Andrew Clark?? (@AndrewHClark) October 21, 2019
Politico buried the lede!
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) October 21, 2019
"Tom Perez is as useless as tits on a boar hog. My advice to Tom Perez is quit, get out of the way or do something different." https://t.co/nQVA7vvaOE
[Warning: some coarse language]:
Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee have raised more than $300 million this year for his reelection — more than any other sitting president in history at this point in the campaign.
Trump has nearly twice as much cash on hand — $158 million, between his campaign account and the RNC — as Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee had at this time in his successful re-election run.
Already this year, Trump’s campaign operation has spent close to $23 million on TV and digital advertising, more than 10 times the amount that the lone major Democratic super PAC spending against him, Priorities USA, has laid out so far in its online-only spending campaign.
Democrats are growing increasingly alarmed by the spending chasm between the two sides — and its implications for the general election.
“The resources he has will be put to work anywhere and everywhere that he feels like he can scare up electoral votes, and Democrats will never catch up. It’s just too much money,” said Chris Lippincott, a Texas-based Democratic strategist who ran a super PAC opposing Sen. Ted Cruz last year. “That’s real trouble … I’m not here to curse the dark, but it’s dark.”
[…]
Some Democratic campaign veterans fear the party is underestimating both the level of Trump’s preparations for 2020 and what it will take to unseat a sitting president. The level of preparation by Trump’s staff echoes Obama’s 2012 campaign, said Rufus Gifford, former finance director for Obama’s 2012 re-election.
“We were sophisticated, we were organized, and we were well-funded. This is everything the Trump operation is. Taking away his craziness, he has an extremely professional operation,” said Gifford…
[…]
One challenge for Democrats within the party’s fundraising ecosystem is already surfacing: intraparty sniping about who should be stepping up to raise money for Democrats. After Republicans announced a multi-million ad assault in early states against Biden, the former vice president’s supporters and DNC critics lashed out at the party apparatus, saying it should help defend against Trump’s attempts to take out one of the Democratic frontrunners. DNC Chairman Tom Perez has said it wasn’t the DNC’s role.
One of Biden’s supporters, Dick Harpootlian, a former DNC member and two-time South Carolina Democratic Party chair, took aim at Perez, saying his inability to come within striking distance of GOP fundraising — even at a time when Trump is facing impeachment — has put Democrats in a grave situation.
“Tom Perez is as useless as tits on a boar hog,” said Harpootlian. “My advice to Tom Perez is quit, get out of the way or do something different. Maybe they need to send a spy to the Republican shop and find out how they’re raising hundreds of millions of dollars off of a guy like Donald Trump."
Ouch. The publication did try to shine some positive light on the Democrats, namely that the 2020 crop has collectively outraised the Trump campaign, but that money is then sliced like sushi to other areas, like attacking the other Democrats running for president. And unlike the 2012 GOP field, which ran on tax cuts, fewer regulations, and job growth, the Democratic primary is one that is just a notch or two above a Communist Party of America rally. It’s insane. The race to who can clinch the title of ‘craziest liberal in America’ to clinch the nomination will be more than enough time for Trump and the RNC to plot their counterattack. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Joe Biden are the cream of the crop. One just had a heart attack, the other cannot say whether her forced health care plan will raise taxes on the middle class (huge red flag), and Joe Biden is lost half the time. Warren is also the original Rachel Dolezal when it comes to cultural appropriation. These are the people we have to beat. Right now, it’s easy to mock how shoddy the field it, the explicit weaknesses, and the radical positions on policy. But Democrats are organized, they will be able to raise funds, and we cannot let up. Keep that boot on the throat and press down until all signs of life fade.
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