Crushing It: Democrats Raking In The Cash

If you thought the anger of Occupy Wall Street protesters at the influence of money on politics, or maybe that Wall Street bankers are so unhappy with the president, might mean Democrats would face a brutal fundraising environment this go around, a House GOP aide has news: Dems are “crushing it”:

President Barack Obama’s approval ratings are in the dumps, and so is the economy. Wall Street’s cash cows are angry at the Democratic Party and its sudden embrace of populist rhetoric. Almost no one thinks Democrats have a shot at winning back the House next year and Republicans have an excellent chance of winning control of the Senate.

Yet even with the prospect of an entirely GOP-controlled federal government in 2013, Democrats are outraising their GOP counterparts in month after month.

In September alone, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee nearly doubled the National Republican Congressional Committee’s take, while the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee raised $1 million more than the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

The piece goes on to cite, among other things, Democrats’ openness to bringing in lobbyist money from interest groups, Nancy Pelosi’s continued draw as a high-dollar fundraiser, and the proliferation of outside spending groups as key factors, but one has to wonder if much of this isn’t simply a result of Democrats being reasonably happy with a somewhat activist president who has accomplished a good deal of what he promised. On Iraq, healthcare, and Wall Street reform, the White House can point to real progress.

And so even if much of the left is channeling its energies into the Occupy Wall Street protests, frustrated with the relatively meager gains of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and the ongoing foreclosure and economic crises, many rank-and-file Democrats are giving generously to their party, egged on by the loopy nature of the Republicans challenging the president.