The Washington Post is reporting that it is:
Democratic political committees have seen a decline in their fundraising fortunes this year, a result of complacency among their rank-and-file donors and a de facto boycott by many of their wealthiest givers, who have been put off by the party’s harsh rhetoric about big business.
The trend is a marked reversal from recent history, in which Democrats have erased the GOP’s long-standing fundraising advantage. In the first six months of 2009, Democratic campaign committees’ receipts have dropped compared with the same period two years earlier.
There very well could be some frustration by Democratic donors that they feel “left out” in Washington. We worked to bring our party back to power, only to see them bow to the very people we worked to defeat.
Speaking for a personal point, I used to be one to donate. I haven’t done that in awhile, and have no plans to. I feel like the Democrats are snubbing their noses at their base for one, but another big reason is the economic down turn. I don’t have that additional $25 or $50 laying around to give. That alone could be another reason for the downturn.
Overall I highly doubt that fundraising will be what it was a couple of years ago, but I also believe that the Democrats will have to work a lot harder to sell themselves to their donors and attempt to regain some trust that has been lost lately.
Health care should have been a huge rallying point for Democratic donors and the base, instead the Democratic leaders in Congress have alienated that base by giving in to the right and their lies/smears. This is the poorest performance indicator in politics, and if the Democrats become a minority in 2011 then so be it – they made their own grave. That is a sentiment not unique to me, but one I hear more and more every day.