Summit Notebook
Exclusive outtakes from industry leaders
from Tales from the Trail:
Obama letter brings Democratic donors out of the woodwork
A fundraising appeal from President Barack Obama on Monday netted Democratic Congressional candidates their biggest online fundraising day ever, New York Congressman Steve Israel said at the Reuters Washington Summit.
Obama made an email appeal asking supporters to donate $3 or more to help the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The appeal raised $580,000, said Israel, chairman of the DCCC, which helps recruit and raise money for candidates for the House of Representatives.
“Our base is animated, engaged, writing checks,” Israel said. “Our grassroots participation is absolutely off the charts.”
Obama’s brief email contained the suggestion that “if you’re with me, then I need you right now. We're just days away from the mid-year fundraising deadline -- this is the biggest test yet of our commitment to win in 2012. We can't fall short on this one.”
Rumors of our demise exaggerated, Van Hollen says
Representative Chris Van Hollen likes to paraphrase Mark Twain when talking about the Democratic chances in the November mid-term election.
“News of the Democratic demise is greatly exaggerated,” the man in charge of the House Democrats’ election effort told the Reuters Washington Summit. “I think the pundits have been wrong before and they’ll be wrong again. Democrats will retain a majority in the Congress. I’m very confident of that.”
