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ActBlue would like to thank Chris and Matt for providing us with the opportunity to discuss our role in the open left. Each Friday I look forward to presenting a post on activity at ActBlue and how that ties into the Democratic infrastructure we are building to enable a permanent majority.
Sixteen months out from the 2008 elections, Democrats lead multiple levels of Republican counterparts in fundraising activity. Early reports from presidential candidates, party committees, and online activity at ActBlue indicate Democrats surging across the board.
According to Q2 estimates made publicly available, Democratic presidential candidates outpace their Republican counterparts by 74%. Estimated donations--with all major campaigns reporting--show a $35 million Democratic lead (see table below). Barack Obama sets the pace in total number of donors with 258,000, more than the top three Republicans combined. Mitt Romney has 80,000, John McCain reports 72,000, and Giuliani 56,000 for the year. John Edwards has announced over 100,000 donors for the year.
Democrats are also leading in fundraising for most Party Committees--wiping out a traditional Republican stronghold. Through May 31st, Democrats raised $73.2 million through the DNC, DSCC, and DCCC compared to the $75.8 million garnered by their Republican counterparts. During the period, the DSCC reported $22.7 million to the NRSC's $12.4 million while the DCCC pulled ahead of the NRCC, reporting $26 million to $23.6 million. Additionally, June congressional committee reports indicate the DCCC now holds a $19 million to $2 million lead in cash on hand after debt.
Online fundraising continues to grow in importance. ActBlue reported $3.4 million in online giving during 2nd quarter fundraising from over 29,000 donors to 460 Democratic candidates at the state and federal level. For the first six months of 2007, ActBlue has channeled $6.5 million in online funds to Democratic candidates from nearly 62,000 donors with an average contribution size of $108.
ActBlue's Q2 total is more than 25 times the $132,000 that ActBlue gathered in the same quarter of the 2005-06 election cycle for Democratic candidates online.
These online funds have gone unanswered by Republicans. ABC PAC, an online bundler for Republicans, has reported only $385 raised to six candidates for the year. Republican bloggers have noted the disparity in online infrastructure.
"The GOP campaign apparatus today has virtually nothing in place to raise money on par with ActBlue."
My only qualm here is that the right is always playing catch-up on things of this nature. Why don't we have a counterpart to ActBlue.com that is anywhere near as good or as easy to use? ... For once, why can't the right (whether nationally or locally) be the first out of the gate with something new and innovative?
That said, there is no room to rest on our laurels or on our technology. The Republicans may eventually mimic the technologies of the left. Until that time we can use the data and progress we've made in the least few years to continue developing new online fundraising infrastructure for 2008. I'll explore this more in upcoming weeks.
P.S. The other week we posted a statistical series on the ActBlue Blog that looked back at the most recent Q2 online fundraising. I've posted these links below the fold which lead to each of the four lengthier stats posts.
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