Crazy Political-Donation Money

It's the home stretch now, and anyone thinking of donating to a campaign had best do it soon if it's to have any effect at all.

Hugh Hewittt offers his "Big Four" of the most important campaigns to donate to. Mike DeWine's on there, but because his candidate is, Hewitt says, slightly to the left of Nancy Pelosi.

Here's the RNC's donation site, letting you know where your money will buy the most Evil.

Related: Dean Barnett critiques a Time article claiming the power of the "netroots" has plateaued and it's only downhill from here.

The article is largely about Kos, of course. The media only seems to care about liberal bloggers; such is life.

The money-raising potential of the rightroots has never really been tapped-- at least not like the Kossacks have exploited it. I'm not sure why, but I suspect it's due to the structure of the dextrosphere (less heirarchical, less follow-the-one-undisputed-big-leader), and partly due to our different temperament (I think most on the right feel a little like sell-outs about boosting politicians, as we think even the ones we like are incompetent cowardly sell-outs, and we recoil from the designation "political activist.")

I also think it's a function of emphasis, and where our efforts are most needed.

What does the sinistrosphere most need to do for the Democrats? Raise money. Especially hard money, which the Democrats have trouble raising. They have less of a problem getting their numerous millionaires and bazillionaires to write out huge soft-money checks.

What does the dextrosphere most need to do for the Republicans? Push stories into a liberal media almost entirely unwilling to cover any story perceived as aiding a Republican candidate. The Kos crowd hardly has to worry about the media helping Democrats; it's more or less built for that function. The "stories" the Kos crowd winds up pushing are the unhinged conspiracy theories that pretty much no one will touch, but they do so largely because their stronger, less lunatic stories are already being dutifully covered by the media, often with "flood the zone" coverage.

Still, while pushing stories into a hostile liberal media environment may be our most important contribution, there's no rule that says we can't also raise money for candidates in a critical election.

JackM. thinks it would be a good idea for several bloggers to start up a soft-money PAC. I'm all in favor of such an effort, as soon as he explains to me how I can skim 95% of the money from the PAC as "administrative costs."

posted by Ace at 01:20 PM

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