This story, by Paul Perry, who dropped his congressional bid late last, is extraordinary. It takes you inside the world of fundraising in a way that is extremely rare. And the response from Ed Rendell to it is just as good. His piece is here.
And our latest in Dave Dayen's investigation into Aflac, this one focused on how sales pressure led to customers getting stuck with policies they never asked for, and other assorted conduct. If you work for Aflac, or have in the past, please reach out, as there is more to come in our series.
For the first time at TYT,I tried taking callers live. Talk radio lives!
Fourth quarter fundraising numbers are out and at least six progressive insurgents managed to out-raise their establishment Democratic opponents in House races in the final quarter of 2017, a stunning development that threatens to upend the way the party goes about selecting candidates.
The fundraising upsets reflect a burst of progressive energy that is also powering Democrats more broadly. Hotline reported that at least 30 Democrats out-raised incumbent Republicans this past quarter.
In House races across the country, the Democratic Party has endorsed or given support to particular candidates in competitive primaries, helping them raise big money from corporate PACs and high net-worth donors as the route to amassing a war chest capable of taking on Republicans. That strategy, as The Intercept reported last week, shapes the kind of candidates that end up representing the party, and the issues they focus on in Washington.
A counter-strategy, first attempted by the Howard Dean presidential campaign, then adopted in part by Barack Obama and in fully by Bernie Sanders, is now going local. And even on establishment terms, it's working.
Ammar Campa-Najjar is running in California's 50th district against Republican Duncan Hunter and Democrat Josh Butner, who has the backing of the New Democrat Coalition PAC, representing the pro-Wall Street wing of House Democrats. Campa-Najjar raised more than $175,000, largely with small donors, to Butner's roughly $105,000. Hunter, meanwhile, is spending more on legal fees to fend off corruption charges than he's pulling in.
Jess King, running in Pennsylvania's 16th district, which currently covers Lancaster, Reading, and the Amish country in between, though it is subject to a last-minute redistricting. In the fourth quarter, she pulled in $195,000, well more than the incumbent Republican Lloyd Smucker, whose haul was just $133,000. Christina Hartman, endorsed by EMILY's List and most of the top Democrats in Pennsylvania, brought in $185,000.
For all of 2017, Hartman, who ran unsuccessfully in 2016, outpaced King by $100,000, but the final quarter reflects shifting momentum.
In Illinois, Marie Newman, challenging incumbent Rep. Dan Lipinski, out-raised one of the most conservative Democrats in the House, pulling in $260,000 to his $228,000. Lipinski has an enormous amount of cash in the bank, having been in office since 2004 and facing little opposition, but the fourth quarter is a wake up call.
Newman has the backing of NARAL Pro-Choice America, the Human Rights Campaign, immigrant rights groups, and a host of national progressive groups, while Lipinski has traditionally had the backing of the state machine and its labor unions. Cracks in that wall may be forming however. The Illinois Federation of Teachers plans to make its endorsement decision this weekend and the national AFT will follow the locals lead, a spokesperson said. The SEIU has yet to weigh in, but Lipinski recently came out against the union's signature $15 per hour minimum wage.
If you work on a campaign that out-raised an opponent relying on small dollars, shoot me a note and I can work you into the story I'm writing with Lee Fang on this.
More on this in our opus on fundraising: https://theintercept.com/2018/01/23/dccc-democratic-primaries-congress-progressives/
This email grows by word of mouth. If you enjoy getting it, please forward this note to friends and tell them to sign up to start getting their own copy here. I'm the Washington bureau chief at The Intercept, and I send this several times a week. If you want to contribute directly to help keep the thing running, you can do so here, though be warned a donation comes with no tote bags or extra premium content or anything. Or you can support it by buying a copy of Out of the Ooze: The Story of Dr. Tom Price or Wall Street's White House, the first two books put out by Strong Arm Press, a small progressive publishing house I cofounded.
No comments:
Post a Comment