The mantra repeated by congressional Democrats as they get ready to defend their majority in a potentially tough midterm election next year has been that the best defense is a good offense.
Financially speaking, they meant it.
The first-quarter fundraising reports are in, and according to the data made available so far, Democrats are not taking their majority status for granted but are instead raising millions to defend their most threatened seats in both the House and Senate.
House Democrats list as vulnerable about 40 first- and second-term members, and the initial reports indicated those representatives were busy collecting enough cash to protect their typically swing-district turf.
Rep. Dan Maffei, D-N.Y., for instance, raised $436,000, an impressive amount for a freshman. Rep. Zack Space, D-Ohio, who will be fighting for a third term in a district that had been held for years by a Republican, raised $410,000 in the first quarter, according to campaign documents filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Republicans have fewer freshman seats to defend in the House in 2010. One of the most threatened is the Louisiana seat held by Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, who came from behind to unseat longtime Democratic incumbent William J. Jefferson. Cao, a former community organizer, raised just $143,470 and is almost certain to face a tough challenge in 2010.
Senate races are more expensive.
One of the Senate’s most vulnerable Democrats, Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, raised more than $1 million in the first three months of 2009. Dodd is facing serious challenges from former Republican Rep. Rob Simmons and state Sen. Sam Caligiuri, who just recently announced they were entering the race. Dodd’s poll numbers have plummeted thanks to his relationship with the mortgage industry as well as the revelation that he may have given American International Group the authority to hand out big bonuses, despite the company’s receipt of a massive government bailout.
Another vulnerable Senate Democrat, if only because he is in the cross hairs of determined Republicans, is Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. The Cook Political Report, which rates Senate races, rates Reid as likely to be sent back to the Senate for a fifth term. But he isn’t taking any chances.
Though no formal challenger has yet to emerge, Reid has stockpiled more than $5 million in cash to fend off any effort to unseat him. In the last quarter alone, he took in more than $2.2 million. Reid’s re-election bid is particularly challenging because Nevada’s population includes a significant percentage of newcomers who have no idea who he is. Perhaps as evidence of that quandary, Reid’s list of donors seems to include only a fraction of Nevadans. Much of the money comes from donors outside the state, including residents of Atlanta, Provo, Utah, San Antonio, Mechanicsburg, Pa., and Boca Raton, Fla.
Perhaps no senator faces a tougher re-election battle than Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. Challengers have already lined up on the left and right of Specter, who is one of the last GOP moderates in the Senate.
Specter took in nearly $1.3 million in the first quarter, leaving him with a war chest of more than $6.7 million. Though his Republican primary challenger is too new to the race to disclose any fundraising numbers, his Democratic opponent has raised close to $600.000.
Franklin and Marshall College political science professor Terry Madonna said Specter faced a tough re-election bid, no matter how much money he raised.
“Specter’s support for the stimulus package was the final blow to energize conservatives against him,” said Madonna, referring to Specter’s vote in favor of the $787 billion bill. “If he loses, it will not be for lack of resources.”
