Pelosi Presses Caucus to Pay Dues

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

House Democratic leaders are pressuring their rank and file to pony up party dues as they get ready for potentially brutal midterm elections.

The pinch is starting at the top, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has been hammering home the necessity of an improved fundraising performance both to her lieutenants and the wider Democratic Caucus, insiders said. House Republicans outdid House Democrats in gathering personal campaign money for party coffers in January and February — a rare bright spot for an otherwise beleaguered GOP money machine and a wake-up call to the majority.

“That spooked some folks,” one senior Democratic aide said. “And she’s using it to motivate people. We can’t take our foot off the gas and allow them to catch up.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee received more than $2.3 million in member transfers in January and February, while the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee saw just less than $700,000 in transfers during that time. Consecutive victories in the transfer war are something that the NRCC was unable to accomplish during all of 2009, when the committee saw more transfers than the DCCC just once, in October. In the first 12 months of the cycle, the NRCC collected about one-third of the Democrats’ $16.3 million in transfers.

Overall, House Republicans still have a fraction of the Democrats’ cash on hand, with $6.1 million in the bank compared with the DCCC’s almost-$20 million war chest.

But Democrats are pivoting onto full-time political footing after wrapping up the heaviest legislative lift of their majority by passing the sweeping health care bill late last month. The weeks-long push to gather votes for that package distracted leaders who otherwise would have been banging on Democratic lawmakers to meet their dues obligations.

“We all need to get focused on it,” another top aide said. “We’re behind on member money, and it’s an issue.”

The party counts on direct transfers from Democratic lawmakers’ campaign accounts for about a third of its funds, or about $54 million. Through March 24, Democrats had forked over about $16.8 million, less than a third of what they owe in total, according to a Roll Call analysis of a party fundraising tally.

The roster of Democratic deadbeats on dues — those who have yet to contribute a penny to the DCCC — runs to 99 lawmakers.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003636648

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Anyone with a pulse surprised?