There a lot of “deadlines” in political fundraising, most mean nothing and amount to nothing. They are made up simply to create a false sense of urgency to get the gullible to give their money – “Our mid-month deadline is approaching and were 12 donations short of our goal! Won’t you please help?” Yet, other deadlines are real, at least in the sense that they are actual deadlines where something is expected of the campaign in a legal sense. The end of the quarter is one such goal.
Every 4 months, campaigns have to report to the Federal Elections Commission how much money they’ve raised and from where. The deadline (and the number, really) is meaningless in that the campaign will continue the next day no matter what, there is not official amount of money that must be raised in a quarter to keep running.
That having been said, if a campaign does show a particularly bad number the odds of dropping out increase, as others will undoubtedly have a larger war chest.
What’s funny is that holds for individual candidates, people you’ve never or barely heard of – and Kamala Harris in 2020 when he fundraising dried up a month before the Iowa caucuses despite having glowing press dumped all over her – but it doesn’t apply to incumbents or parties. Incumbents and parties aren’t going to quit because they didn’t reach some arbitrary fundraising goal, they plow on.
But they do use these deadlines to motivate fence-sitter donors.
Nancy Pelosi knows this game. Having been in politics since the Earth cooled, Nancy has likely raised more money than her $300 million net worth, curiously amassed while a “public servant.” She not only knows how the game is played, she helped create the game.
On Saturday, one email from her under the subject line, “my final ask,” Pelosi insists, “I hate to bother you again, but I need ONE last push of help from my strongest supporters. I am hoping for just 1 more gift from your area before midnight to hit my End of Month goal! If we can blow our End of Month goal out of the water, we'll hit the numbers we need to HOLD the House, BREAK this tie, and make sure Trump NEVER runs for President.”
The “strongest supports” line made me laugh, as I’ve never given her a penny and never would. But what tie is she talking about? She’s not raising money for the Senate. That was the entire text of the pitch, lazy even by lazy Democrat standards – just give me money so I can do stuff!
That email, her “final ask,” came in at 5:07 pm. At 10:16 pm, because she’s a lying fraud, Nancy Pelosi sent another email, this one more desperate, begging even. “I hate to interrupt your evening, so I’ll keep this short and sweet: My House Democrats are still $25,000 short of my must-hit goal,” Nancy starts. “There are just TWO hours left before one of my most important deadlines of the entire year. And I’m asking for your $3 before time runs out to close the gap and defend our House Majority.”
Again with that “most important deadline ever” garbage. It’s meaningless. “Please,” she continues, “Can you chip in to protect our House Majority at the link below? It’s all on the line.”
Well, if it’s all on the line…
They aren’t even trying anymore. They toss a focus grouped word salad – deadline, important, only you can make the difference, please help, just a couple of dollars – and use “Trump” and “Republicans” as the dressing. Who eats this junk?
Turns out a lot of people. Fewer than those who used to – Democrats are polling just this side of sharp stick in the eye as far as their popularity goes – but still enough to do serious damage to the country if Republicans screw up or don’t show up in November.
Don’t trust the polls, don’t believe the hype. Republicans not only need to win this fall, they need to win by a lot. That’ll not only send a message to Democrats, it’ll send a message to squishy Republicans that they’d better do what they campaigned on or we’re coming for them next. No amount of pathetic fundraising emails from them will save their butts if they fail.