From Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post:
Unlike the House and Senate campaign committees, the DNC trails the Republican National Committee in fundraising. At the end of March, the DNC had $5.3 million on hand compared to $31 million in the bank for the RNC.Well, this is the way the DNC wanted it, I thought? The primary could go on forever, for all they care. How's that working out for you?
With such a meager cash on hand total, it's hard to imagine the DNC keeping up a sustained paid advertising campaign [against McCain] for very long.
What that means -- barring a quicker-than-expected resolution to the ongoing Clinton-Obama scrap -- is that an outside organization must step into the void.
The obvious candidate is Progressive Media USA, the group now controlled by Republican turned Democrat David Brock. While Brock touted a $40 million budget for the group, its first foray -- an ad that ran on MSNBC and CNN last week -- cost just $7,000, according to a Democratic media buyer.
The dearth of money coming into the DNC and the lack of real dollars being spent on outside groups' attempts to define McCain present a serious problem for Democrats if the race between Obama and Clinton goes all the way to June 3 or beyond.
Not only do Democrats run the risk of allowing McCain several more months to define himself, they also could watch as disaffected donors, who favor either Clinton or Obama, walk away from funding the DNC and other outside groups if their preferred candidate doesn't wind up as the nominee.
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