Here is a Saturday Night Special for all you political junkies out there...
While both committees have reserved a significant amount of TV airtime between now and November 7th, what have they actually spent their money on recently? Kombiz Lavasany, who occassionaly posts at MyDD, has the answer. Today, he put together a spreadsheet detailing all of the independent expenditures made by the NRCC and the DCCC since July 1st. I put them together in a readable, web-friendly format, and you can see them here:
DCCC and NRCC Independent Expenditures Since July 1st
I also whipped up a table showing the committee totals in each district, and the percentages each committee spent on polling, mail, ad production / placement, and phone banking. You can see that chart here:
District and Expenditures Summary Table
Remember, this is only money that each committee spent in individual districts. Other costs, such as staff salary, are not included. Here are some thoughts on this information:
- The NRCC spent $1,186,662.00 on 74 polls in 50 districts. By contrast, the DCCC did not spend any money on polls. This gap accounts for nearly the entire spending difference between the two committees in this time period.
- The DCCC made 100% of its expenditures in districts controlled by Republicans. By contrast, the NRCC made 85.2% of its expenditures in districts controlled by Republicans.
- The NRCC made non-polling expenditures in only three districts controlled by
Republicans Democrats: GA-08 ($45,145.40), IL-08 ($177,629.68), and VT-AL ($76,443.86). This is interesting because they also ran polls in GA-12, IA-03, LA-03, NV-01, OH-06, OH-13, SC-05, TX-17, and WV-01. In other words, they ran polls in twelve Democratic held districts, and then didn't spend another dime in nine of those districts.
- The NRCC also polled the following Republican-held districts and never spent another dime: AZ-05, CA-50, CO-07, CT-02, CT-04, CT-05, KY-04, FL-09, FL-22, IA-01, IN-09, KY-03, KY-04, NH-01, NH-02, NV-02, NC-11, OH-01, OH-15, OH-18, PA-10, TX-22, VA-02, WA-08, and WV-02. Given the status of independent and internal polls in CT-02, IN-09, IA-01, NC-11, PA-10, and TX-22, one has to wonder the if the NRCC has given up on those six districts. Democrats hold substantial leads in polls from those six areas, and the NRCC is not coming in to help. The lack of NRCC spending in CO-07, IN-02, KY-04, and VA-02--all districts where Democrats hold poll leads--can possibly be explained by the cash advantage of Republican candidates in those districts.
- The DCCC only made expenditures in 15 districts: AZ-08, CO-07, IA-01, IL-06, IN-02, IN-08, KY-04, NC-11, NM-01, NY-24, OH-15, PA-06, WA-08, and WI-08. In WA-08, they only spent $150.They spent between $29K and $58K in PA-06, OH-15 and IL-06. Everywhere else, they spent more than $100K In some cases, they spent far more than $100K.
- The DCCC made expenditures in the following districts that the NRCC made no non-polling expenditures: CO-07, IA-01, IN-02, KY-04, NC-11, NM-01, and OH-15. Either the NRCC has given up in these districts, or they are relying on the cash of their candidates to pull out these districts.
- The NRCC made non-polling expenditures in the following Republican held districts where the DCCC made no expenditures: CA-11, CO-04, MN-06, PA-07, and PA-08. In this group, CA-11 and CO-04 really stick out. The NRCC is worried in those two districts, spending more than $100K on non-polling expenses in each.
- The NRCC spent $887,621.33 on mail. Only $106,942.75 was spent on positive mail. Further, 40% of the positive mail, or $43,609.52, was spent trying to help Huffman win the AZ-08 primary, which he did not do. By way of contrast, the DCCC spent only $275,180.20 on mail. About 40% of that, or $111,088.90, was spent on positive mail.
- Almost all of the rest of the money for both committees was spent on ad production and placement. In this regard, the two committees spent nearly equal amounts of money, though the DCCC was very slightly ahead ($1.9M to $1.7M). For both sides, the ads appear to be overwhelmingly negative, if not entirely so.
- The NRCC spent 91% of its money on firms in the Washington, DC area. Nearly all of what was not spent on a DC area firm was spent in a single, Utah-based, mailing service: Arena Communications. The NRCC spent 0.03% of its money outside of DC and outside of Arena communications.
- The DCCC spent a little more of its money outside of DC: 11%. Nearly all of that went to three firms: The Strategy Group in Illinois, AKP Message and Media in Illinois, and The Baughman Group in California.
Keep digging through and see what else you can find. This is great information, and Kombiz deserves a lot of credit for it. It is also useful to look at
the House 2006 forecast when scanning through this information.
