Dems. flooding New Hampshire with cash

By Max Heuer

WASHINGTON, Nov. 01, 2002--National money is pouring into the Granite State for this midterm election at a record pace.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has given an historic amount of money to New Hampshire's state and local Democratic committees for a non-Presidential election.

The DNC money has flowed into the state at more than twice the rate of money from its Republican counterpart, according to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

The DNC funneled nearly $3.7 million to the Granite State's party committee from Jan. 1, 2001 through Oct. 16, 2002, according to the FEC. That figure dramatically outpaces Republican National Committee spending in New Hampshire. The RNC transferred a record of more than $1.4 million to the state and local party committees in the same time period.

The spending is important for candidates in the New Hampshire Senate and House races because under current election law, state party committees operate as political action committees (PACs).

There is no cap on donations to PACs, and state committees often pay for "issue ads" during elections. Although issue ads cannot directly encourage viewers to vote for or against a specific candidate, they often do so indirectly.

In the last midterm election, in 1998, the DNC transferred just $189,907 to the Granite State's Democratic committees and the RNC just $79,500 to GOP state committees, according to the FEC. In the only Senate race that year, GOP Sen. Judd Gregg was re-elected with an overwhelming 68 percent of the vote.

There are two reasons for the contributions increase, UNH assistant professor of political science Mark Wrighton said: First, there is heightened national interest because the New Hampshire Senate race is one of only a few that will determine control of the Senate, and second, this is the last year for unregulated "soft-money" donations thanks to the campaign finance bill that Congress passed in March and that becomes law next Wednesday, the day after the elections.

The new law will ban soft-money donations to political parties and limit some advertising before an election. So the 2002 elections represent the last chance for donors to slide huge checks directly to the parties, Wrighton said.

Nationally, the RNC has outspent the DNC 2 to 1. The RNC has transferred more than $46 million to state committees around the country, while the DNC has transferred about $21.6 million, according to the FEC.

Almost all the money the DNC transferred to Granite State Democratic committees was in the form of soft money- a whopping $3.53 million. The RNC's soft-money transfers totaled $974,728 this year, roughly two-thirds of its total contribution. Wrighton said that the money the RNC had transferred was probably a "rational decision" that factored in other important races.

He said the large disparity between the two national party committees' New Hampshire contributions was not an indication that the GOP wasn't paying enough attention to close New Hampshire races, specifically the Senate contest between Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and Rep. John E. Sununu.

Instead, he said, Democrats have to spend more on ads if they are to win in the historically conservative Granite State, where even the number of registered Independents is significantly larger than registered Democrats.
"(Shaheen) has gained, but I think the best way to describe her task is as an uphill battle," Wrighton said. "(Democrats) have to appeal to the Independents, and that's going to require some bucks."

"It's a race we think we can win," DNC communications director Maria Cardona said. "It would be a big coup if we could pick up that seat. The resources reflect a priority that the Democrats have."

RNC spokesman Dan Ronayne said the committee was supporting Sununu and explained the high level of Democratic national support as a philosophical difference between the parties. "Democrats tend to think that all power, knowledge and wisdom come from Washington, D.C.," Ronayne said.

The largest soft-money contributions to any state have come from the RNC, which has transferred more than $5.3 million to Florida state and local committees. Ronayne would not comment on what that figure represented, but one GOP state official attributed it to the relatively low cost of commercials in New Hampshire compared to other media markets.

"We're supportive of all of our candidates in New Hampshire and feel that at the end of the day it will be leadership that will be appreciated by the voters of New Hampshire and not negative attack ads," Ronayne said. Shaheen has raised $4,701,976 to Sununu's $2,847,690, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee has transferred about $2.5 million to state GOP committees in New Hampshire. Its Democratic counterpart has transferred about $2.3 million to its state party committees.

Phone calls to the New Hampshire Democratic Party were not returned.

Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.