Tag Archives: fundraising

Bauman Unanimously Re-Elected, Ups Ante as LACDP Chair

Eric Bauman is going to raise $1 million dollars for 2008.  The best part is how he’s going to spend it.

Last night, members of the Los Angeles County Central Committee raised their hands to take an oath of office from Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno, and took to electing Party officers.  Among them was Chairman Eric Bauman, unanimously re-elected to a fifth term.

I’m told that’s a record.  From his words last night, it’s easy to see why.

Bauman has been singled out here as someone who speaks his mind and knows the mechanics of electioneering, even when his opinions and techniques run against the grain of some Democratic leaders.

He showed what he’s made of in thanking the Central Committee and looking ahead to 2008 – and perhaps beyond:

Now is the time to rebuild, refresh and reassemble the mosaic that comprises our Democratic Party for it is only through unity, strength and shared purpose that we can be successful this fall.

As we work to build unity however, we must take seriously our responsibility to remind those we have elected or put in positions of power of their obligation to do the right thing by our Party and our people.

Whether it is protecting those most at-risk from harsh budget cuts or standing up for our Constitution or avoiding situations and actions that have the appearance of impropriety, as leaders of our Party, we must not fear holding feet to the fire and speaking truth to power.

If we truly are leaders, we must act like it: respectfully, responsibly, but fearlessly.

Who else senses a little tough love in there?

What I find interesting about Bauman’s leadership of the LACDP is not just his (sadly uncommon) willingness to speak truth to power, but how he marshalls forces and resources on the ground to help candidates up and down the ballot, even in those districts often written off as unwinnable.

After the jump I’ll share what I heard last night (and from Bauman separately), and what I’ve seen him do to build and strengthen the Democratic Party in Los Angeles County.

In nominating remarks, presumptive Assemblyman John A. Pèrez noted that in Bauman’s time as LACDP Chair, the organization had grown from an annual budget of $50,000 to over $1 million this year.

The amount raised is important.  However, what really matters is how it’s being spent – a wider topic of some discussion here at Calitics (and across the party) in recent weeks.

Continuing his speech, Bauman reminded Party members how they chose to spend their war-chest when they adopted a budget earlier this year:

That’s why LACDP’s leaders have spent months setting goals and formulating an aggressive plan to educate, motivate and mobilize LA County’s 2,070,210 Democrats.

Our plans for 2008 are extensive and include everything from direct voter contact programs to voter registration to providing comprehensive training for Democratic activists.

Of course we will assist clubs and groups who open campaign headquarters; work with the California Democratic Party; and maximize the quality, effectiveness and impact of our Red Zone program. We will also work with our colleagues in rural, red and purple areas around the state to help them best take advantage of this incredible Big Blue Wave year.

As Chair of this Party, I staked out an aggressive goal in January to raise a minimum of one million dollars this year to fund our various programs – and more than half of it has already been raised. That is a testament to a talented staff and committed members who have worked hard to ensure we have the resources we need to accomplish our goals.

Most importantly, these funds are being used to support candidates for local, state and federal office and to fund the critical activities that will grow our Party and support our grassroots activists and volunteers.

Bauman’s details of how the funds would be used – for grassroots activities and Party building – fired up the membership.  Whether it’s in candidate campaigns, PACs, or Party Organizations the fastest way to stifle grassroots fundraising is to have that cash disappear into a vacuum or worse, to have it used for purposes unfathomable to the rank and file.

I’ve had some personal experience with Bauman’s grassroots programs.  A close friend of mine was a Red Zone candidate two years ago and benefitted from guidance and resources from Bauman and the LACDP staff.

I myself had the privilege of leading two training sessions for the Red Zone candidates and their staffers last weekend.  These are citizens from across the county (or whose districts reach into the county) who are answering the call of civic duty by running in tough Republican Districts.  They are doctors, teachers, and parents taking up the mantle of our Party and LACDP has their back.

Bauman has had his eyes on California’s rural, red and purple regions for a long time.  In recent months, he has worked to export this Red Zone program beyond his home county – a good model as CDP moves toward implementing their 58 County plan.

Full disclosure: I am proud to have previously worked for John A. Perez and the Los Angeles County Democratic Party – both mentioned above.  I tapped these relationships to copy/paste from printed remarks, instead of transcribing my recording.

CA-46, CA-50: Cook, Leibham Outraise Incumbents

Two more Democratic challengers have outraised their incumbent opponents in the second quarter.  That doesn’t happen very often, and it’s not supposed to in the supposedly impenetrably gerrymandered state of California.  But as I’ve been saying, this is a different year.

In CA-50, I’ve been informed that Nick Leibham outraised Brian Bilbray by $245K-$210K in the second quarter.  From the release:

Challenger Nick Leibham raised more money than Congressman Brian Bilbray in this fundraising quarter, according to FEC reports.  Leibham raised $245,504 while Bilbray managed $210,315.  The quarter spanned from April 1, 2008-June 31, 2008.

“Any time that you out raise an incumbent, especially someone like Brian Bilbray who has taken over $180,000 in campaign contributions from Big Oil, it gives the campaign a huge amount of momentum,” said Leibham.  “This is the clearest sign yet that the voters of the 50th are ready for change and I’m honored that so many of them are willing to contribute to our effort.”

Leibham has $266K cash on hand, compared to $528K for Bilbray.

In CA-46, there is similarly good news about Debbie Cook so I’ll let it speak for itself:

Debbie Cook Raises More Than Rohrabacher For The Second Straight Quarter

Democratic Congressional nominee Debbie Cook announced today that she raised more campaign funds than Dana Rohrabacher in the latest reporting period, making it the second quarter in a row she’s out-raised the nine-term incumbent.

Cook, the Mayor of Huntington Beach, out-raised Rohrabacher by more than $10,000. Cook raised $92,900 to Rohrabacher’s $78,712.

Cook has $97K CoH.  70% of her donors are local, meaning she has grassroots support AND that she has limitless potential if she can tap into netroots energy and build a national fundraising base.  She will be appearing at Netroots Nation.

Both of these are, in some respect, a reflection of two lazy incumbents.  Bilbray and particularly Rohrabacher aren’t paying any attention to fundraising.  But there’s not going to be any NRCC money forthcoming if these two get in trouble.  There’s not going to be any expansion of their donor base.  So while both have cash reserves (Bilbray has about $528K CoH, Rohrabacher has $387K), they aren’t overwhelming, and both Leibham and Cook ought to be somewhat competitive financially.

This is nothing like CA-26, where David Dreier has $1.9 million in the bank.  (Russ Warner’s numbers aren’t out yet.)

More numbers:

CA-45: Bornstein raised a little over $96,000, has $121K CoH.  No numbers for Mary Bono yet.

CA-03: Bill Durston raised around $125K, has $188K CoH.  Nice haul for him.  Dan Lungren raised $173K, has $615K CoH.

CA-52: Mike Lumpkin raised $128K but only has $53K CoH.

UPDATE: Russ Warner’s numbers have come through.

CA-26: Warner raised $162K in Q2, $125K CoH (with $73,000 in debts; ouch.); Dreier raised $277K in Q2, $1.9million CoH, no debts.

That’s what I’d call an uphill battle.

CA-04: Brown Raises $357K in Q2; 6:1 Lead in CoH

This is the value of facing an opponent who had to battle through a contested primary.

Charlie Brown just released his second-quarter fundraising statistics, and he had his best quarter to date, raising $357,000 for the quarter, with over $670,000 cash on hand.  Notably, $260,000 of that total was in the last 6 weeks of the quarter, which suggests that the fundraising prowess is increasing as Brown solidifies his donor base and shows his strength as a candidate.  He has over 12,500 individual donors now.

Best of all, 5% of that total, nearly $18,000, will now go to the “Promises Kept Charity Challenge” for veterans care facilities.

McClintock’s fundraising in his 2010 statewide accounts is pretty good (over $200,000), but because of the tough primary, he basically depleted his entire Congressional account.  McClintock is at a 6:1 fundraising disadvantage.  Brown ought to take advantage right now and start defining his opponent.  

Obama and the OC

The LA Times reports on a Barack Obama fundraiser in the heart of Nixonland.

On the Balboa Bay Club’s wall of its most famous guests, there are photos of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford and, of course, the Duke.

There are no Democratic politicians. Securely tucked behind the Orange Curtain, Newport Beach is Republican-held territory.

But Barack Obama may be hoping to change that.

On Sunday, the Democratic Illinois senator brought his campaign to the center of Republican power and did what he has done better than any other presidential candidate — raise money.

Obama would leave with $1.2 million, an organizer estimated. With this infusion, he may exceed the amount GOP candidate John McCain has raised in Orange County.

I think this is laying it on a bit thick.  Even in the most Republican bastions in the country there are 3-4 Democrats for every 10 citizens, and some of them are wealthy.  So rounding up some donors for the guy who’s favored to become the next President of the United States doesn’t seem to me to be that difficult.  What’s notable here is the resistance to McCain.  Orange County was one of the better regions for Mitt Romney in the primary, although McCain won there for the most part.  In addition, there are demographic shifts in Orange County that may not reveal themselves in big donors, but is starting to catch at the grassroots level.  

I don’t think a $1.2 million dollar fundraiser is as indicative of an overall shift in the voting public, but in the fall, we’ll see some better gauges, particularly in CA-46 and the campaign of Debbie Cook, to note whether or not the Orange Curtain is opening a peek.

A Tale Of Two Parties

Here’s a story I’d like to see from top Democrats someday:

The California Republican Party poured $345,000 into Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian’s state Senate campaign last week, a sign that party leaders hope to make a run at the seat of termed-out Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden.

The party followed up that donation by giving $595,000 to former Assemblyman Tony Strickland, the GOP nominee in another fall Senate campaign.

The races are the only two of the 20 Senate seats up for election in November where competition is expected.

By the Bee’s calculations, by the way, Aghazarian has a 9:1 fundraising advantage over our candidate, Lois Wolk.

Meanwhile, on our side, the lump-sum payments go… elsewhere.

If the apologists don’t see how bad this looks, I can draw them a map later.

[UPDATE by Brian]: Well, we can’t compete with these sums, but how about we throw a little love towards our two candidates in these districts. Both Hannah-Beth Jackson and Lois Wolk are strong progressives and would make excellent Senators. So, let’s Pick up the slack at ActBlue.

Why The Perata/CDP Scandal Threatens The Budget Fight

As many have noticed, the Leadership has moved on the offense in the budget fight.  They’re not negotiating with themselves, instead staking out a fairly strong position for changing the revenue model and rejecting a stop-gap, borrow-and-spend, cuts-only approach.  Media wags, who normally act like two year-olds and talk about “working together” as if this would solve the problems in Sacramento, are responding to the aggressive approach.  George Skelton writes today about how California voters “can’t handle the truth,” how they want unlimited services without paying for them, and how they need to face reality.  He also specifically cited the 2/3 requirement as crippling the state.  Dan Walters says it’s about time for a “budget cage-match,” the ideological battle to once and for all address the structural deficit and budgeting-by-catastrophe that has become commonplace.  

Yet at the same time, the California Democratic Party hands $250,000 to the Senate President Pro Tem to pay for his legal bills, causing oodles of outrage.  Over the last two days I’ve been given a lot of reasons for this.  “The money was earmarked for Perata,” they say.  Perata has his own campaign account already and he’s perfectly capable of raising his own cash.  If people want to hide their donations by legally laundering them through the CDP, that’s nothing the state party should involve itself with.  There ought to be transparency.  “He’s being railroaded,” they say.  That’s certainly possible in an era of Bush league justice, but nobody is making that case credibly, just talking about how long the investigation has dragged on.  

And then there’s this excuse.  “If the Senate leader is indicted, that will hurt downticket races.”  But the appearance of impropriety in the CDP legally laundering contributions and paying for Perata’s legal defense fund is doing the EXACT same thing, and at a crucial time.  The LAT op-ed that Bob mentioned is just the beginning.

Furthermore, I have no idea why Sen. Perata is still the leader.  Sen. Steinberg, who did a $10 fundraiser in Sacramento a couple days ago and who I feel represents a breath of fresh air, is perfectly capable of carrying out the duties, and having someone this tainted as the face of the budget fight is incredibly damaging.  It won’t be long before the press connects this story and the budget story, and then all the mostly laudable efforts to cast a stark difference between Democrats and Republicans on the budget will be compromised.  For the life of me, I can’t figure out why the caucus has not demanded immediate leadership elections.  I believe Steinberg is scheduled to take over on August 11, when we’ll already be down the road in budget negotiations.  It is the height of stupidity to thrust someone into the leadership at that late date.  He should have been in there a month ago.

At the least, Perata can return the money and throw himself fully into this budget fight as a means of preserving what’s left of his legacy.  The CDP can return to its core mission of electing Democrats, and if it has to give back this $250K to donors, so be it.  But at a time when the momentum is on Democrats’ side and the budget fight is going to consume all the oxygen for the next couple months, allowing a distraction like this is a huge mistake.

End Of The Quarter Push

I’m not going to be able to get to a House roundup today – probably later in the week.  But today is the last day of the 2nd quarter, an important milestone for all candidates, particularly challengers.  If candidates aren’t showing significant fundraising strength by the end of Q2, it’s not likely they’ll be able to get the institutional support they may need to compete against their incumbent opponents.  Here in California we know that we have at least a half-dozen Congressional Democratic challengers and a handful of state legislative seats which have the potential to be in play in November, given strong expected turnout and coattails from Barack Obama on the top of the ticket.  For those who think that California is hopelessly gerrymandered and there can’t possibly be any flips from one party to another, let me direct you to this quote from a spokesman for the NRCC, the electoral arm for Republicans in the House:

“This is a challenging environment,” she said. “Any Republican running for office has to run basically on an independent platform, localize the race and not take anything for granted. There are no safe Republican seats in this election.”

That’s true for California as well.  So I urge you to find your favorite Democrat, read up on them, and donate.  Your contribution will never mean more than today.  Calitics has an ActBlue page with some candidates listed, and you can get plenty of information by reading some of my past roundups.  But let me also direct you to some candidate’s websites:

Bill Durston, CA-03

Charlie Brown, CA-04

Russ Warner, CA-26

Jule Bornstein, CA-45

Debbie Cook, CA-46

Nick Leibham, CA-50

Hannah-Beth Jackson, SD-19

Alyson Huber, AD-10

Joan Buchanan, AD-15

Ferial Masry, AD-37

Marty Block, AD-78

Manuel Perez, AD-80

[UPDATE by Julia]  Let me add one more to that.  The Equality for All campaign is in the midst of an end of the quarter push as well.  There is a special Calitics ActBlue page for the marriage campaign.  They can use all the help they can get.

As I mentioned in the questions below.  Equality for All is the official “No on Prop. 8” campaign.  All 50 orgs that are a part of the coalition (including Courage Campaign, where I work) are coordinating their activities, volunteers, communication and media through Equality for All.

Obama’s California Goldmine

Yes, we are an ATM for the presidential candidates.  They come here and take our money and rarely actually campaign.  That is unlikely to change, but that does not mean that we have not seen a big difference in how Obama worked this state as compared to his predecessors and competitors.  He has hit the holy grail, which Dean scratched the surface on back in 2004.  The combination of small donor, highly active volunteers and new Silicon Valley cash has fueled his volunteer run offices and campaign activities in other states.

Jose Antonio Vargas has an wonderful profile of an Obama delegate Linnie Bailey, a supervolunteer and political neophyite who ended up running GOTV operations in CA-44.  He follows her from her first $10 donation to running an official campaign office.

One Saturday morning in early November, she drove 30 minutes north to attend a Camp Obama meeting at a storefront church. She had read about the event online. Organized by Obama staffers, Camp Obama is Politics 101 for volunteers, where they learn the value of phone-banking, the goals of precinct captains and how to register new voters. About 25 people attended — young and old, black, white and Latino. When she introduced herself to the group, “Hi, I’m Linnie,” a few recognized her name.

She left the meeting tasked by Obama staffers as the “area coordinator” in charge of Corona. Working with Jose Medina, 55, the area coordinator in nearby Riverside, she scheduled an informal meeting of those from the two cities at a Barnes & Noble the following Wednesday. She posted it on BarackObama.com. They expected 10 people. About 20 showed up.

After the meeting, Medina, a fixture in the local political scene who teaches Chicano studies at Riverside Polytechnic High School, suggested they run as Obama delegates for the convention. She agreed. Outside the bookstore, they shook hands on it.

The period between December and February was, in Bailey’s words, “a complete whirlwind.” She was so effective in organizing meetings, attending rallies and networking that Jocelyn Anderson, an Obama staffer overseeing southern California, asked Bailey to be a “regional field organizer.” “Here’s the thing about Linnie,” Anderson says. “She was always on overdrive and she never said no.”

Now Bailey is hard at work a running voter registration program.  She is in a heavily Latino area, bringing new voters to the Democratic party and Barack Obama.  Oh and she is planning a run at her local community college board of trustees seat.  That is a legacy that will last well after Novemeber.

The flip side of the equasion are all of the new big money people Obama has been able to bring in.  The Chronicle today notes that if Northern California was a state, we would be the forth in the nation in dollars donated to presidential candidates.  This is the year of the love affair between the Silicon Valley and Barack Obama.  Six out of the top 10 zip codes for fundraising in CA are in NorCal.  (flip it)

“It’s not that Southern California is giving less, it’s that Northern California is giving more” said Anthony Corrado Jr., a professor of government at Colby College in Maine, who specializes in campaign finance. “Silicon Valley has become much more engaged, and the new technologies of social networking and Internet-giving have made Northern California much more involved.”

Josh Green at the Atlantic, who I admittedly really enjoy has an article on the Obama fundraising machine and describes it as a Silicon Valley startup that naturally attracted Silicon Valley donors.

Meanwhile, the Obama machine rolls on, to the delight of its early stakeholders. “They’ve gone from zero to 700 employees in a year and raised $200 million,” Steve Spinner says of the campaign. “That’s a super-high-growth, fast-charging operation.”

It’s also one whose growth curve is coming into sharper focus. The Obama campaign has not yet assumed a place in Silicon Valley lore alongside Apple, Google, and Facebook. But a few more months could change that. The hottest start-up in the Valley right now won’t make anybody rich, but it might put the next president in the White House.

Barack Obama was new to most Americans when he entered the presidential race, in February 2007. But he was familiar to Silicon Valley in at least one way: like a hot Internet start-up in the glory years, he had great buzz, a compelling pitch, and no money to back it up. He wasn’t anybody’s obvious bet to succeed, not least because the market for a Democratic nominee already had its Microsoft.

New Silicon Valley bundlers stepped up and helped raise the other half of Obama’s money, from people giving more than $100 at a time.  They were drawn to him for the same reasons why they give 20 year olds millions of dollars to run with a bright idea: they have a vision and experience is often times the exact opposite of what you need when you are trying something new and different.

Furthermore, in Silicon Valley’s unique reckoning, what everyone else considered to be Obama’s major shortcomings-his youth, his inexperience-here counted as prime assets.

I asked Roos, the personification of a buttoned-down corporate attorney, if there had been concerns about Obama’s limited CV, and for a moment he looked as if he might burst out laughing. “No one in Silicon Valley sits here and thinks, ‘You need massive inside-the-Beltway experience,'” he explained, after a diplomatic pause. “Sergey and Larry were in their early 20s when they started Google. The YouTube guys were also in their 20s. So were the guys who started Facebook. And I’ll tell you, we recognize what great companies have been built on, and that’s ideas, talent, and inspirational leadership.”

As Jane Hamshire wrote on HuffPo, “forget what Clinton did wrong.  What did Obama do right?”

He may have lost the primary here, but he got way more out of California than a few delegates.  The Obama campaign created new activists and donors large and small.  He will activate them through the fall and the big question is how much will they build on the Dean legacy of continued political activeness like Linnie Bailey is planning to do.

2 Days To Primary: GOTV!

Some thoughts as we head to Tuesday:

• I thought I’d have time to put together a monthly roundup for May, but it never came together, and the primary is going to change those analyses a bit, so I’ll put something out after the primaries.

• I have to correct an error.  On Saturday I wrote that Marta Jorgensen had dropped out of the race in CA-24.  She had, but she recently got back into the race and is focusing on turning out new voters in Northern Santa Barbara County around Lompoc.  This is a crucial effort to activate Hispanic voters who traditionally have not turned out, and I both salute Ms. Jorgensen for her efforts and apologize for the error.  Hopefully she can visit Calitics and fill us in on that effort up in Lompoc.

• Doug Ose has loaned his campaign another $600,000 in the waning days before the GOP primary against Tom McClintock in CA-04.  This primary now exceeds $4 million dollars, and it’s hard to spend that much in that district.  McClintock pulled out of a debate earlier this week, and there was the Pete Wilson savaging as well.  Reading the tea leaves, I don’t think Ose would make that extra investment if he wasn’t close to nailing this down, but I could be wrong.

• In CA-03, Bill Durston offered comment on Dan Lungren’s Hawaiian pool party revealed this week by ABC News:

“Lungren’s behavior is disgusting. He claims to be a leader in ethics reform, then he turns around and subverts House ethics rules. This is just one of many examples of Lungren’s hypocrisy […] The people of the 3rd Congressional District deserve better representation than a career politician like Dan Lungren who sells out to special interests. I’ve been caring for the people of our district for over 25 years as an emergency physician. I believe we have an emergency in our government. I’m running for Congress to help restore government of, by, and for the people.”

I like it.  Durston is trying to put up a big number in the June 3 primary, despite running unopposed, to show his strength in this challenge.

• And it’s not primary-related, but I think we have the first ever Calitics mention in the LA Times in this story about Laura Richardson.  Hey guys, you could have used my name, it’s right above the title….

UPDATE (by Brian): I have said before that some of the IEs have really angered me. It seems that at least a couple of these annoying IEs have something in common: EdVoice. Chris Cabaldon’s former lobbying organization employer has been quite busy this year. In SD-23, they have the cheezy “Carbon-neutral voting” mailers.  In AD-8, EdVoice has gone all in for their former CEO, Cabaldon.  Randy Bayne has the story on a negative mailer on Mariko Yamada for supporting vocational education for mentally retarded Californians. Not cool.

CA-52: Like Father, Like Son

The real question here is whether these military contractors think they’re contributing to the same Duncan Hunter or not.

Records show connections between companies Rep. Hunter has worked with and some individuals who are contributing to his son’s campaign.

Rep. Hunter added language to the 2008 Defense Appropriations bill awarding $19 million to L-3 Communications, which has an office in San Diego, for the development and testing of a missile system, according to data compiled by Taxpayers for Common Sense. Executives from that company contributed $2,750 to Duncan D. Hunter’s campaign.

Rep. Hunter also earmarked San Diego-based Trex Enterprises Corp. $1.5 million for the development of a device that will help helicopter pilots navigate with limited visibility. Campaign finance records show Trex employees, including a scientist, donated $4,800 to Duncan D. Hunter’s campaign.

Lobbyists working for the companies have also supported Hunter’s campaign. Patrick McSwain and Frank Collins, who were listed as principals at the lobbying firm Northpoint Strategies, collectively donated $2,500. Northpoint worked on behalf of L-3. McSwain and Collins were both former [Rep. Duke] Cunningham chiefs of staff.

You know, why wouldn’t they?  Hunter was a reliable champion for whatever boondoggle weapons system these contractors thought up, even planes that can’t fly.  There’s no reason to believe that his son won’t act the same way.

Calitics has endorsed Democrat Mike Lumpkin in this seat.