Dallas-area Republican Congressman Pete Sessions continues to suck it up as head of the NRCC, turning in another lackluster fundraising quarter for the Republicans' Congressional campaign efforts. Even the pro-GOP Daily Caller failed to put a positive spin on the GOP's numbers:
The Republican fundraising arm for House races this year raised $3.2 million in December and paid off their debt, but still lags far behind their Democratic counterpart in cash on hand. The National Republican Congressional Committee, which released its numbers Friday morning, has $2.67 million in its war chest, compared to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's $16.7 million. The DCCC outraised the the NRCC with a total of $3.8 in December.
Because Republican suckitude always looks better in a clear, comparative numerical array, here's a table:
| Republicans | Democrats | Advantage |
| Raised in December | $3.2M | $3.8M | Democrats. |
| Current Cash On Hand | $2.67M | $16.7M | Democrats. By a factor of seven. Burn. |
| Total Raised in 2009 | $35.8M | $55.7M | Democrats. |
"Two million! That's right, we've only got two million in the bank! And there are 435 seats in Congress!"
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When asked for a statement on the $2.67M cash on hand, Pete Sessions held his fingers up like Nixon and demonstrated to the illiterate tea-bagging base how many "two million" is. Despite recent success at recruiting candidates, it remains unclear whether the GOP infrastructure will be able to support them. The RNC only has $8.7M on hand. Furthermore, many incumbent Republicans are facing primary challengers from the agitated, further-right-wing Tea Party crowd. If you're that far to the right of the modern day Republicans, you may be at risk of falling off the edge of the flat earth you believe in. If the Republicans are the "Party of NO," what does that make their primary challengers? The "Party of Oh HELL NO," I suppose.
This is a particularly amusing turn of events here in Texas, where three of our Republican Congressmen are facing primary challenges: Reps. Ralph Hall, Kenny Marchant, and Mike Conaway all have primary opponents.
So, for that matter, does Pete Sessions himself, who will face a strong opponent in the general election in Grier Raggio, if he can first get past David Smith, a Dallas businessman active in the Tea Party. From Talking Points Memo:
Will he tap into the Tea Party movement, to power his campaign? "Absolutely, absolutely I will," said Smith, saying that the principles of the Tea Party movement are largely in line with his own. "I anticipate that those will be the most active supporters of my campaign, those are going to be the people who will go out for my campaign and wear out shoes, and make phone calls to people in the district."
Sessions, who somehow managed to convince the voters of CD-32 that he had any skills relevant to serving in Congress, now faces a far-right challenger in the form of a corporate financial analyst railing against the bailout. However, it does seem that Democrats and Tea Party Smith may have something to agree on:
Smith also warned the Republican Party about Sessions' performance as NRCC chairman, in the wake of NY-23: "If this is the performance we can expect from the NRCC nationwide, going into the primaries and general election next year, this is a D-minus -- and that's friendly."
We agree! Pete Sessions gets a D-minus for his performance as NRCC chair. I just hope he keeps it up. Or down, as the case may be. |
