Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and the leader of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have clashed angrily in recent days in a dispute about how the party should spend its money in advance of this fall's midterm elections.
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), who is leading the party's effort to regain majority status in the House, stormed out of Dean's office several days ago leaving a trail of expletives, according to Democrats familiar with the session.
The blowup highlights a long-standing tension that has pitted Democratic congressional leaders, who are focused on their best opportunities for electoral gains this fall, against Dean and many state party chairmen, who believe that the party needs to be rebuilt from the ground up -- even in states that have traditionally been Republican strongholds.
Emanuel's fury, Democratic officials said, was over his concern that Dean's DNC is spending its money too freely and too early in the election cycle -- a "burn rate" that some strategists fear will leave the party unable to help candidates compete on equal terms with Republicans this fall.
‘A historic opportunity’
Emanuel declined to talk about his meeting with Dean but was blunt about his concern that the DNC is not managing its resources wisely.
"This is a historic opportunity, and we can't squander it," Emanuel said.
Although Dean has proved to be a more impressive fundraiser than some skeptical Democrats once thought -- the DNC has taken in $74 million since the start of this election cycle in 2005 -- he has also been a prolific spender. Disclosure forms for the first quarter of this year showed the party with about $10 million in cash on hand. The Republican National Committee, by contrast, has raised just under $142 million this cycle and has about $43 million on hand.
Many Washington Democrats think Dean is unwise to spend on field organizers and other staff in states where House and Senate candidates have little chance of winning. Dean has maintained that the party cannot strengthen itself over the long haul unless it competes everywhere.
At a recent breakfast meeting with reporters, Dean said he has crafted a long-term business plan "and we are going to execute it." He also said, "We need to be a national party again, and I think we have to run on a message that can appeal to people in Alabama as well as it can appeal to people in New York." He declined to be interviewed for this article.
Emanuel, a recreational ballet dancer with the vocabulary of a longshoreman, has for 15 years fashioned a reputation as one of Washington's most aggressive figures -- first as an operative on Capitol Hill and in the Clinton White House, and after 2002 as a representative from Chicago. He was joined during the Dean confrontation by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
How far to set the bar?
Schumer, Democratic sources said, did not join in Emanuel's eruption but does share his concerns about DNC resources.
"The cash on hand is not what we'd like," Schumer told reporters yesterday. "The amount of money he has raised is good."
For all the heat of the exchange with Emanuel, it fundamentally concerns how far out on the horizon the party should be focusing.
Dean, arguing for a long-term perspective, said that the party must become a presence everywhere, even in very Republican states in the South and the Mountain West. He was elected on an outsider's platform that promised a "50-state strategy" as the best way to revitalize a party routed from both the White House and Congress during most of the Bush years. "We have gone from election to election, and, if we don't win, then we've dug ourselves into a deep hole and we have nothing to start with," he said. "That is a cycle that has to be broken."
"The way you build long-term is to succeed short-term," Emanuel countered.
Traditionally, the DNC has been the main conduit to finance get-out-the-vote programs considered crucial in close elections. The DNC is also allowed to give cash gifts to the House and Senate committees.
Emanuel, Schumer and other Democratic operatives anticipate that the better-funded Republican Party structure and its allies will flood competitive states and districts with money, television ads and other resources.
"The Republicans are going to muscle their way through the close elections and use their money to really move the needle in just those few districts they need to keep control," one Democratic operative warned. Another complained that the lack of cash on hand at the DNC "leaves us naked."
"We need the DNC on the field in this election," Emanuel said.
An upswing in spending
A comparison of DNC spending in 2001-2002, the previous off-year cycle, with 2005-2006 shows large increases in expenditures in every major category, according to the Federal Election Commission and PoliticalMoneyLine.
In the first 15 months of the 2005-2006 cycle, Dean spent $9.7 million on salaries, compared with $5.7 million over 24 months in 2001-2002. Dean has spent $2.8 million on political consulting, compared with $1.7 in 2001-2002.
Dean has shifted the focus of the DNC from major donor solicitations to the Internet, direct mail and telemarketing gifts -- all of which require higher fundraising expenditures. Internet consulting and online services cost the DNC $4.1 million; postage, mailing and telemarketing costs in 2005-2006 totaled $38 million. In all of 2001-2002, the comparable expenditures were $15.2 million less: $22.8 million.
Other committees in both parties are following a more traditional strategy of husbanding resources. Emanuel's DCCC raised nearly $58 million this cycle by the end of March, with $23 million in the bank. Schumer's DSCC raised $56 million, with $32 million on hand.
On the GOP side, the National Republican Congressional Committee raised $83 million, with about $24.5 million on hand, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee raised $50 million, with $16.5 million on hand.
Research database editor Derek Willis and political researcher Zachary A. Goldfarb contributed to this report.