Simon Says: Bring Back Democrats' High-Dollar Addiction

Simon Rosenberg is a reader of this blog from what I see in my referal logs (Hi Simon and Maria) he is also a potential etablishment candidate for the DNC in outsider's clothing. And while speaking at a conference last week in DC, he made an interesting point that may reveal something about the direction he would take the Democratic Party. (Yes, Ezra there is more)

He expressed a disdain for all of the fundraising emails sent by the Kerry campaign, and scoffed at the idea of raising money online -- favoring, apparently, a more esoteric relationship between campaigns and their grassroots supporters. While admirable, it ignores the fact that over 2/3rds of all Kerry's funds came from such contributions. This is because 90% of the contributions to the NDN came from contributions of $1,000 or more.

Given his reputation as a prodigious high-dollar fundraiser, his position makes sense. He seems to believe that the millions of us who have found a way to wield real political power with our $50 contributions belong back on the sidelines while fundraisers like Rosenberg bring in the "serious" dollars.

For me, there is no comparison between Howard Dean and Simon Rosenberg. The fact is that Howard Dean's presidential campaign created a new fundraising model -- one that carried over into John Kerry's campaign and to the progressive cause as a whole. Over 75% of Kerry's money came from small donors -- while Dean was in the race over 90% of his record-breaking totals were in contributions of $200 or less.

For the first time in modern history, we have the potential to build a party free from the special interest strangehold that has corrupted our government and alienated people from the political process.

During this election cycle ordinary people became the biggest special interest. The next leader of our party needs to expand that base and solidify that support.

Howard Dean led the way and made the new model work. But Simon says he wants to take us back to the bad old days.

Do you want to beholden to the small dollar donors or to these companies that gave Simon Rosenberg and the NDN more than $10,000 each: Instead he prefers to bring these companies that all gave the NDN more than $10,000: Augusta Capital, Roche, Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, Aetna, Pacificare Health Systems, Intuit, Goldman Sachs, Visa International, Natl Assn of Homebuilders, Biogen, Charles Schwab, BellSouth, Boeing, Prudentila Financial, Natl Assn of Realtors,  General Electric, Microsoft, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Mass Mutual Life, Nortel, Amgen, Travellers Indemnity, Anheuser Busch, Bristol Meyers Squibb, American Insurance Association, Kleiner Perkins, United Airlines, Time Warner, Eli Lilly, United Parcel Service, American Bankers Assn,  Genesoft, Dow Chemical, Colgate Palmolive, Ernst & Young, Northrup Grumman, Sempra Energy, and Price Waterhouse (from Open Secrets and commenter - jfrjfrjfr)

Comments

[praktike]

"Simon Rosenberg is a reader of this blog from what I see in my referal logs"

er, no. Someone clicked on a trackback link?

[4jkb4ia]

The Kerry campaign spent 90% of its emails asking for money. If Rosenberg would like to spend the energy of campaign emails asking people to get involved and spreading message(!), he has my blessing.
I am worried about his comments in support of the war. Most Americans can tell this war is folly by now (or at least, to paraphrase Jon Lee Anderson, getting rid of Saddam was good; everything that has happened since is a screwup).