Bradley in DC
09-26-2007, 06:48 AM
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0907/6014.html
Small donors rewrite fundraising handbook
By: Jeanne Cummings
September 26, 2007 06:03 AM EST
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — On a table near The Cashew’s upstairs bar, Nicola Heskett is laying out an array of pens and donor information forms as Jason Moehlman strolls in, still sweaty from the muggy evening’s air.
He slaps down a $20 bill to cover the recommended contribution for the Kansas City Lawyers for Barack Obama Happy Hour. “Uh, would you mind using your credit card? I think it’s a little cleaner,” says Heskett, 36, a first-time, small-time bundler for Obama who is helping to rewrite political fundraising playbooks this cycle.
The rise of the baby bundlers — people who ask friends and family to donate for a candidate and then direct the money to the campaign — is adding a face-to-face dimension to tactics used in 2004 to spur an explosion of Internet donations.
The influx of these new players, combined with unorthodox appeals by the candidates, also is fundamentally reshaping the parties’ donor bases.
The surprising end result could be that the Democratic nominee will buck historic trends and have a significant financial edge in a cycle when the nominees alone are expected to spend an unprecedented $1 billion.
Obama on Monday e-mailed supporters to report he had 75,000 new donors in the third quarter, which ends Sunday.
That figure nearly matches the entire Republican field’s donor base in the first six months of the year.
According to an August analysis by the Campaign Finance Institute done in partnership with Politico, 87 percent of the donors to Democrats in the first six months of this year didn’t give money to any candidate in the party’s crowded 2004 primary, the first presidential race after passage of the McCain-Feingold reform law that put a premium on limited individual donations.
There’s also a significant infusion of new blood on the GOP side: Among Republican givers, 89 percent of donors did not give to President Bush in his 2004 reelection race.
That figure could reflect two trends: the engagement of new donors such as those backing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney from the Mormon community and the fatigue or disenchantment of Bush-Cheney donors.
Several high-ranking members of the president’s 2004 campaign finance team haven’t written a single check to a 2008 candidate.
Beneath those broad numbers lies harder evidence suggesting a Democratic financial tsunami is building.
The total number of donors who gave more than $200 in the first six months of this year to Democrats was 137,388 compared to 81,075 givers to Republicans, the Campaign Finance Institute study found.
If history serves as a guide, many of those primary donors will be inherited by the party nominee next year, much as Democrat Howard Dean’s Internet activists stuck with nominee John F. Kerry in 2004.
“The Democratic nominee will begin with an unprecedented fundraising base and will be able to draw on the unprecedented fundraising bases of other Democrats. That will make for a very powerful force,” said Anthony Corrado, a political fundraising expert who serves on the Campaign Finance Institute’s board.
The primary engine behind the Democratic gains is the upstart campaign of Obama. His new face and soaring rhetoric draws huge crowds on the campaign trail that can turn thousands of $5 donations into real money. . .
Small change? Think again. According to campaign financial disclosure reports, Clinton raised $4 million from donations under $200, and Romney reported $3 million.
Edwards’ small checks amounted to $5 million and Republican front-runner Rudy Giuliani gathered less than a million from the little guys.
In contrast, Obama raised $16.4 million, or 29 percent, of his record-breaking second-quarter total of $57 million from those small donors. . .
Small donors rewrite fundraising handbook
By: Jeanne Cummings
September 26, 2007 06:03 AM EST
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — On a table near The Cashew’s upstairs bar, Nicola Heskett is laying out an array of pens and donor information forms as Jason Moehlman strolls in, still sweaty from the muggy evening’s air.
He slaps down a $20 bill to cover the recommended contribution for the Kansas City Lawyers for Barack Obama Happy Hour. “Uh, would you mind using your credit card? I think it’s a little cleaner,” says Heskett, 36, a first-time, small-time bundler for Obama who is helping to rewrite political fundraising playbooks this cycle.
The rise of the baby bundlers — people who ask friends and family to donate for a candidate and then direct the money to the campaign — is adding a face-to-face dimension to tactics used in 2004 to spur an explosion of Internet donations.
The influx of these new players, combined with unorthodox appeals by the candidates, also is fundamentally reshaping the parties’ donor bases.
The surprising end result could be that the Democratic nominee will buck historic trends and have a significant financial edge in a cycle when the nominees alone are expected to spend an unprecedented $1 billion.
Obama on Monday e-mailed supporters to report he had 75,000 new donors in the third quarter, which ends Sunday.
That figure nearly matches the entire Republican field’s donor base in the first six months of the year.
According to an August analysis by the Campaign Finance Institute done in partnership with Politico, 87 percent of the donors to Democrats in the first six months of this year didn’t give money to any candidate in the party’s crowded 2004 primary, the first presidential race after passage of the McCain-Feingold reform law that put a premium on limited individual donations.
There’s also a significant infusion of new blood on the GOP side: Among Republican givers, 89 percent of donors did not give to President Bush in his 2004 reelection race.
That figure could reflect two trends: the engagement of new donors such as those backing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney from the Mormon community and the fatigue or disenchantment of Bush-Cheney donors.
Several high-ranking members of the president’s 2004 campaign finance team haven’t written a single check to a 2008 candidate.
Beneath those broad numbers lies harder evidence suggesting a Democratic financial tsunami is building.
The total number of donors who gave more than $200 in the first six months of this year to Democrats was 137,388 compared to 81,075 givers to Republicans, the Campaign Finance Institute study found.
If history serves as a guide, many of those primary donors will be inherited by the party nominee next year, much as Democrat Howard Dean’s Internet activists stuck with nominee John F. Kerry in 2004.
“The Democratic nominee will begin with an unprecedented fundraising base and will be able to draw on the unprecedented fundraising bases of other Democrats. That will make for a very powerful force,” said Anthony Corrado, a political fundraising expert who serves on the Campaign Finance Institute’s board.
The primary engine behind the Democratic gains is the upstart campaign of Obama. His new face and soaring rhetoric draws huge crowds on the campaign trail that can turn thousands of $5 donations into real money. . .
Small change? Think again. According to campaign financial disclosure reports, Clinton raised $4 million from donations under $200, and Romney reported $3 million.
Edwards’ small checks amounted to $5 million and Republican front-runner Rudy Giuliani gathered less than a million from the little guys.
In contrast, Obama raised $16.4 million, or 29 percent, of his record-breaking second-quarter total of $57 million from those small donors. . .