The Rats are Scurrying off the Ship

First came the Party Leaders as Senator Biden and Ex Senator and Failed Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards ran away from Dean’s comments about the Republicans. Now we get word that 3 of the top fundraisers from the Democratic National Committee are leaving or have left their positions.

From The Hill, the newspaper for and about Congress.

Three top fundraisers at the Democratic National Committee have resigned at a time when its chairman, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, has come under fire from fellow Democrats for controversial comments and his Republican counterpart has raised more than twice as much money.

Democratic sources link the resignations to Dean’s decision to focus on raising money in small increments through the Internet, as he did during his 2004 presidential bid, and building up the party’s grassroots infrastructure while paying little attention to major Democratic donors.

It is not because of their love of the job is gone or it is time to look at opportunities, as one might typically say when leaving a position like this. Nope, one of the DNC fundraisers said it was because of strategic differences. That is corporate speak means “ I sure as heck want the whole world to know that some really weird stuff is going on, and I do not want my name on any of it.” \

The committee’s finance directors for the two biggest hubs of Democratic fundraising have quit. Bridget Siegel, finance director for New York and the surrounding area, resigned last week, and Lori Kreloff, finance director for California, left the committee last month.

A third top DNC fundraiser, Nancy Eiring, the director of grassroots fundraising, has also resigned, citing strategic differences with aides to Dean, according to a report yesterday in ABC News’ “The Note.”

So Howard Dean’s direction is doing great. He has alienated the middle of the party, has party leaders distancing themselves from him on Sunday Talk Shows, and is losing the top fund raisers in the party. So hows he doing, we ask with glee. Well the Democrats say he is doing great, why he has raised even more money than the last election cycle.

Dean’s defenders also note that DNC fundraising is ahead of where it was at this point after the last presidential election, when Democrats could still raise unlimited amounts of soft money.
…

Through the end of April, the DNC raised $18.2 million in total contributions, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission, although DNC officials say that $18.6 million is a more accurate total.

But then the reality raises it’s ugly head.

By comparison, the Republican National Committee has raised $42.6 million, according to FEC data — more than twice as much.

Oops! Well, as a good conservative, we wish Mr. Dean all of the good luck in the world. May he lead the DNC through the next election cycle and beyond!

Howard Dean’s 100 Day Review

Independent Sources has done a great job of creating the performance review for Howard Dean at the DNC over his first 100 days. This is typical in the corporate world to determine whether or not to keep or let the employee go. An excerpt, then you need to go over and read the rest.

Employee Howard Dean has been Chairman of the DNC for 100 days. At the end of the that probationary period, we review each new hire’s performance and make recommendations for improvement or other action.

Mr. Dean’s duties are in three principal areas:

1) Fundraising
Performance: Poor

Mr. Dean’s primary job objective is to raise money for the Committee. His 2004 campaign’s fundraising success was a principal reason he was hired. But after finally matching the other party in 2004, we have fallen far behind since he took over. In Q1 we raised only $14m vs their $32m. We had only 20,000 new donors and they had 68,200. We’re left with only $7m in the bank versus their $26m. The press attributes this to Mr. Dean’s lack of engagement with the fundraising effort and reticence from the business community, given Mr. Dean’s anti-business stance in the last election. If we don’t have money, we don’t win, and if we don’t win, we don’t get money. This is a major problem.

On top of that, this affects staff morale. We have our children’s private school tuition payments to meet and 401k contributions to make — I know as a party we’re all about public schools and relying on Social Security, but the staff has to live in the real world!

Now. off you go and read the rest of the review. It is dead on!