Lost in the news about Roy Cooper’s strong fundraising quarter was the similarly strong fundraising for the North Carolina Democratic Party. The new chairwoman Patsy Keever said that raising money would be her top priority, and it appears she has delivered: the party raised around $630,000 in the first half of the year and has a little less than $375,000 on hand. (The Republicans finished behind, bringing in $575,000. They have only $187,000 cash on hand.)
The money haul should put to bed any hopes by the GOP that they will forever be opposed by a party in disarray. True, the Democrats have quite a long way to go, but renewed fundraising vitality will put them on a strong foundation to take advantage of any shift in the political winds. And a shift will come, that much is certain. Whether any shift will result in losses of the GOP’s legislative majorities is quite debatable. But as for now, it appears the decline in the Democrats’ fortunes has been abated.
Instead, it’s the Republicans who are grappling with a divided party. The election of the Tea Party grassroots’ Hasan Harnett to the chairmanship is just one instance of it. What it comes down to is the activist crowd feeling suspicious of just about everybody in the leadership. Like the supporters of Donald Trump, they feel like they’ve been ignored by the “establishment” and are ready to strike back. They’re sick and tired and they’re not going to take it anymore.
It remains to be seen which element will eventually seize control of the party. Regardless, there’s been a remarkable shift in intraparty stability within the last year or so. State Democrats stand to benefit if they continue to raise money and recruit strong candidates for next year.
John Wynne is the “conservative voice” at PoliticsNC, where he also provides polling analysis and commentary on legislative campaigns. When not writing about politics, he enjoys gardening and listening to opera. Contact: johncwynne@gmail.com.
During 2013-2014, the Hunt faction shut off funds to the Party by getting their rich friends to stop giving. Why? Well they did not like the elected Chair and so they told all the rich folks to give directly to candidates, and went around working to connect candidates with donors, is that not correct Nina? That was on the presumption that Voller could not be trusted. Why all this? Hunt did not like Voller and conducted scorched earth warfare by depriving NCDP of funds. Now, it still is not clear that Keever and her friends – she was part of that cabal – have or will manage to restart the old donor engines. Nonetheless, it was a needless, destructive maneuver with no point except personal power plays, mostly to put Jim Hunt back in charge. Wonder when they can get his dead hand off the tiller?
And as was said above, how much of that was the House and Senate committees which report through NCDP, which is included? Never depend on these folks to tell you the truth.
Fascinating, but money alone won’t beat Burr. If the National people had a brain, they’d understand that the Senate race, not the Governor, is more important, and would be trying to convince Cooper to switch races.
Hate to bust anyone’s bubble – but it wasn’t exactly the party that raised all that money. That figure included money raised by ALL THE CAUCUSES – including House and Senate. So I am interested in exactly how much was raised by the NCDP itself for the NCDP.
WHERE did you find that amazing picture?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/donkey-stuck-manhole-switzerland-article-1.1998613
Was thinking about titling this post “Democrats Climbing Out of the Hole?” Maybe I should have.
In other words, the Republicans are experiencing exactly what the Democrats experienced in 2013.