If you made a political film now about campaign 2010 one title could be “Retreat of the Democratic Party’s Wall Street Donors” — as news reports emerge revealing a 65 percent drop in Democratic Congressional fundraising operations from two years ago.
If it had been 10 percent, or 20 percent it still would be a notable story, but 65 percent could quality as being in “payback” territory.
A revolt among big donors on Wall Street is hurting fundraising for the Democrats’ two congressional campaign committees, with contributions from the world’s financial capital down 65 percent from two years ago.
The drop in support comes from many of the same bankers, hedge fund executives and financial services chief executives who are most upset about the financial regulatory reform bill that House Democrats passed last week with almost no Republican support. The Senate expects to take up the measure this month.
This fundraising free fall from the New York area has left Democrats with diminished resources to defend their House and Senate majorities in November’s midterm elections. Although the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have seen just a 16 percent drop in overall donations compared with this stage of the 2008 campaign, party leaders are concerned about the loss of big-dollar donors. The two congressional committees have raised $49.5 million this election cycle from people giving $1,000 or more at a time, compared with $81.3 million at this point in the last election.
Almost half of that decline in large-dollar fundraising can be attributed to New York, according to a Washington Post analysis of records filed with the Federal Election Commission. Donors from that area have given $8.7 million this year, compared with $23.9 million at this point in the 2008 cycle, with most of those contributions coming from big contributors in the financial sector. New York donors had given congressional Democrats almost twice as much money at this stage of the 2006 midterm campaigns, when Republicans ruled both chambers and held the White House.
According to the Post, a variety of reasons for the nosedive in contributions is a play here, but
…..the overwhelming factor is the rising anger among financial executives who think they have not been treated well based on their support of Democrats over the past four years, according to lawmakers, party strategists and fundraisers. Several of the party’s biggest New York donors declined through spokesmen to be interviewed. Some Democrats say pushing Wall Street reform is more important than any slippage in political donations.
The Politico reports that the Dems are being warned that once financial reform passes they may find Wall Streets shaking their heads no and holding their hands firmly in their pockets:
With the financial reform bill likely to hit President Barack Obama’s desk in coming weeks, Wall Street’s top political players are warning Democrats to brace themselves for the next phase of the fight: the fundraising blowback.
Democrats who backed the bill are finding big banks far less eager to host fundraisers and provide campaign cash heading into the tightly contested midterm elections this fall, insiders say.
Some banks, in fact, have discussed not attending or hosting fundraisers at all for the next few months. Goldman Sachs is already staying away from all fundraisers, according to two sources. The company would not comment.
“I think at least in the short term there is going to be a great deal of frustration with people who were beating the hell out of us — then turning around and asking for money,” said a senior executive of a Wall Street bank.
This now presents the Democrats with a problem.
They can try to keep wooing big bucks from Wall Street donors but it seems increasingly unlikely what they get will offset what’ll go to the GOP. But does that then become an issue? MSNBC’s First Read notes:
But as Republicans tout this decline, it’s a double-edged sword – is it politically wise to be on Wall Street side this midterm season? The only folks who are more unpopular than Washington politicians are Wall Street bankers.
Elections and political rhetoric do have consequences so the question now becomes: do the Democrats make an issue of money from banks, Wall Street siding with the Republicans — and possibly pointing to lopsided contributions going to the GOP in this election cycle? If they do that, what are the consequences further down the line if they — and Barack Obama — are in political fragile positions in terms of a reduced majority and overall slicked down national political clout?
Graphic via motivatedphotos.com
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.