The Democratic National Committee Is Broke

The Democratic National Committee is just about out of lunch money.

According to a CNN/Fortune report, the DNC, which sets the party’s political platform and creates election strategy, is almost completely out of money. The word is that their money problems are so bad, they’re negotiating deliquent vendor payments one by one.

Some of those vendors chose to complain (anonymously) to CNN, and in the process revealed how deep the DNC’s money problems go. Per the report:

“It is a highly unusual state of affairs for a national party – especially one that can deploy the President as its fundraiser-in-chief – and it speaks to the quiet but serious organizational problems the party has yet to address since the last election, obscured in part by the much messier spectacle of GOP infighting.

“The Democrats’ numbers speak for themselves: Through August, 10 months after helping President Obama secure a second term, the DNC owed its various creditors a total of $18.1 million, compared to the $12.5 million cash cushion the Republican National Committee is holding.”

Though the Democrats have been fundraising consistently, Ben Bullard of Personal Liberty Digest suggests that President Obama’s community organizing group, Organizing for Action (previously Organizing for America and Obama for America), has actually supplanted the DNC. The group played a crucial role in Obama’s 2008 and 2012 elections by using “its extensive mailing list and stronger leadership to effectively cannibalize the DNC’s donor base.”

“The [OFA] group can raise unlimited sums from deep-pocketed donors, and there is some evidence it is siphoning resources from the DNC,” adds CNN. “All of the top-tier OFA donors this year have been prolific supporters of the DNC in past years. But of the 13 who cut six-figure checks to OFA in the first half of this year, only three gave to the DNC over the same period, according to a review of records from the Center for Responsive Politics.”

The total sum the DNC is in the hole for? $18.1 million.

The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, is sitting on $12.5 million. And there’s an election coming next year. Now, if only they had something constructive to say…

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