The fundraising patterns and results of candidate recruitment (Senate) are two of the reasons I'm optimistic for Democrats taking the White House along with gains in both Senate and House next year.

who gave blind quotes to the Times and WaPo going to apologize to Howard Dean? They bitched and moaned about how Dean was not courting the big donors enough and was spending too much on rebuilding the state parties.

I remember talking to a big Democratic donor in Des Moines in the summer of 2006, and he was whining about how Dean was "killing us."

All of these people owe Dean an apology. If we had listened to them we'd have given up on trying to win back the House before 2012.

And something for Republicans to tremble about: this is fundraising months before primaries. There are many races where we are waiting for someone to declare, primaries that are competitive that have yet to jell into a list of final primary contenders. Nobody has dropped out on the Democratic side due to lack of funds-it looks like even Kucinich and Gravel have enough to at least make their way to Iowa.

What happens when the support coalesces around a Presidential candidate? What happens when Dean makes his big appeal to fund his voter protection project, when Gore either gets in the race or endorses somebody? The Democrats have people in the netroots still waiting to give money.

Meanwhile the Republicans are trying to put a brave face on it, but the truth is: there's no more pools of money to tap anywhere. People are sitting on their hands all around-neither money or many volunteers. Less than inspiring candidates, resentment over immigration. They can't use a President who's approval is at 25% to raise money from fat cats. The internet Right is toothless. The Direct Mail crowd is dying off. When they finally do make a move, the Democratic Party could have raised a billion across the board-state, federal, and local.

Does anyone have figures from the Democratic Governors Association and the Repub Govs? When I went to retrieve them from MoneyLine, that info is now subscribers only. But I recall that the Republican Governors Association, looking to take LA and defend KY this year, had OUTRAISED the DGA by several million dollars.

When I went to Google, I couldn't find the numbers I'd seen before.

But I did find an interesting post by a Repub in Kansas bemoaning how money had passed through the Democratic Governors Association into the Combined Campaigns in that state, showing that in many cases the total of DSCC, DCCC, DNC -- AND DGA fundraising -- is one fungible pot of money.

But the FEC press release on this subject omits the two Governors Associations fundraising totals.

Wouldn't this just be explained from folks trying to get in good with with the party now in control of Congress and the legislative agenda?

Perhaps a bit of it. But I suspect a lot of the heavy hitters wait until the primaries before giving-it's easier to support one winner than spread your funds too thin and someone else wins and runs in the general. This is more likely ordinary supporters and local supporters stepping up to the plate. Also, if someone is giving those monthly doniations to the DNC, that may not be the only thing that we're giving to.

I suspect the DGA is short because they haven't hit the blogs yet for money. People would be happy to give once there is a definite candidate declared in Kentucky and in Louisiana, and if the DGA would ask.