After eight months as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, how is Howard Dean doing? Poorly -- at least from a financial perspective.
Republicans are handily winning the fundraising race by nearly a 2-to-1 margin, reports the Washington Post. That massive imbalance has caught the attention of Democratic leaders, who are worried the party will suffer as a result in the 2006 midterm elections.
Dean, a former Vermont governor, assumed the top DNC job amid questions from leading Democrats who wondered if he was suited for a job that traditionally has centered on fundraising. The latest figures are an indication those concerns were well founded.
From January through September, the Republican National Committee raised $81.5 million, with $34 million remaining in the bank. The DNC, by contrast, showed $42 million raised and $6.8 million in the bank.
The degree to which the fundraising has not been competitive is obviously troublesome," former Rep. Vic Fazio, D-Calif., told the Post. He expressed confidence in Tom McMahon, Dean's executive director at the DNC.
One House Democratic leadership aide put it more bluntly: "There is plenty of time, but the red flashing sirens should be going off there."
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