Operatives: Abysmal Campaign Fundraising in Third Quarter

By Shira Toeplitz
Roll Call Staff
Oct. 5, 2011, Midnight

Only a few days after the third quarter ended, party operatives warned that the past three months will yield some of the worst Congressional fundraising totals in recent memory.

House and Senate candidates typically bring in lackluster hauls in the third quarter of an off year. It’s traditionally a low point in the cycle because donors are not focused on an election more than a year away and put off writing checks until after summer vacation.

But these past three months will feature some of the most dismal fundraising numbers in the past few cycles, according to interviews with 20 operatives on both sides of the aisle. Consultants speculated fundraising across the board could be down about 25 percent this quarter, while others complained that it took twice as many solicitations to meet their goals.

The bipartisan grumbling varied: Some Democrats griped that the Jewish New Year took up otherwise prolific fundraising days in September, and one Republican operative complained that Hurricane Irene slowed down fundraising in August.

In the end, a laundry list of factors contributed to a poor fundraising quarter, including the effects of a struggling economy on normally deep-pocketed donors.

“I think it’s really challenging right now for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the economy,â€