Democrats Swimming In Midterm Money For A Change

Time for the trolls to demand end to small-dollar donations!

The Washington Post is just toying with our hopes today with a political analysis column contending Republicans are worried about a "green wave" of political contributions going to Democrats, especially first-time candidates challenging Republicans in the House. We're certainly ready to believe there are a lot of enthusiastic people giving money to Dems, but we also want to repeat Indiana Solo's admonition to an excited young Luke Skypilot after shooting down his first enemy space-ship: "That's very nice, young man, but don't you go getting a big head, you hear me?" However much money Democrats have coming in, they all need to run as if Ted Cruz were two steps behind them, insisting they sit down and listen to his impersonation of characters from "The Simpsons."

Columnist Paul Kane says a lot of Democratic House candidates are doing pretty darn well in the last stretch, and that has some Republican operatives worried:

In terms of television and radio advertising, Democratic candidates are expecting to spend almost $50 million more than their Republican counterparts in about 70 top House races, according to a spreadsheet of ad reservations across the country.

That spreadsheet, known as the "competitive summary" by insiders, was maintained by Republican operatives and provided to The Washington Post by GOP strategists.

Kane's sources asked for anonymity, he said, to "discuss their growing fear that Democratic candidates will overwhelm Republicans in the home stretch of the midterm elections," which we assume could either be true or a ploy to get Democrats feeling complacent in the final weeks of the campaign. Darn right we're paranoid. But he adds that other sources from both parties confirmed the general funding trends, too, so hooray for Dems having campaign cash, then.

The biggish deal about a lot of individual campaigns being fairly flush -- or better than that -- is that while outside funders like party committees and super-PACs can throw lots of money into races -- and the Republican mega giga teradonors are spending like crazy -- campaigns get more bang for their Ameros when it comes to ad buys, because they can buy TV time much more cheaply than super PACs and party committees. Also too, as Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Meredith Kelly says, candidates' own ads can be "more effective at introducing candidates, carrying the positive message, and rebutting attacks directly to camera." Or as Kane explains,

That is a polite way of another well-understood fact:   Political consultants put in far more effort to produce quality ads for the candidates, as opposed to the often cookie-cutter ads they produce for super PACs.

Jeez, you mean those Paul Ryan super-PAC ads with the ominous music, the solemn narrators, and the generic scripts are tired and repetitive? But they're so good at implying Democrats love (brown) terrorists and (brown) welfare recipients!

There are lots and lots of examples in the piece about Dems who are getting surprising amounts of money, and for a change, even the DCCC is spending more money on local ads this fall -- $63.5 million -- than the National Republican Congressional Committee, which has reserved $46.8 million in ad buys. In some close races, that means the NRCC isn't even throwing money at GOP incumbents, too bad, so sad. The DCCC is also bringing in a lot more small-money donations than the NRCC, because Democrats are really, really pissed off this year. Their donations may even be downright uncivil in some cases.

So hooray! Dems may very well have, as one Republican operative put it, a "green wave" working to their advantage this fall. That's very nice!

It's also no substitute for organizing, canvassing, phone banking and get out the vote efforts. Dems having money is great, but they still have to run like Rand Paul wanted to come sit down next to them and explain his own special thoughts about the Federal Reserve.

[ WaPo ]

Yr Wonkette could use a little "green wave" of our own, if you know what we mean and we think you do. NO NOT WEED, SEND US MONEY!