By Adam Pagnucco.
The Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee (MCDCC) has had a tumultuous year. The committee has filled five state legislative vacancies, declined to endorse special elections (a reversal from the past), voted against a policy that would stop members from voting to appoint themselves to the General Assembly, saw one of its members file a complaint against the state party chair for alleged bullying, saw another member demand the resignation of the chair before resigning himself, admitted to a tax problem with the IRS, and endured a boycott call by a former state party officer.
Have those problems affected the party’s fundraising?
The party has two campaign committees, a federal account with the U.S. Federal Election Commission and a state account with the Maryland State Board of Elections. (The state account includes a tiny administrative fund). Both of those committees have filed new campaign finance reports for 2023.
On the federal side, MCDCC started with $580, raised $93,556, spent $88,225 and finished with $5,911, a net gain of $5,331.
On the state side, MCDCC started with $39,140, raised $19,885, spent $25,106 and finished with $33,920, a net loss of $5,221.
Adding both together, MCDCC gained $110 for the year.
The committee’s IRS problem was a factor in its finances. Former MCDCC Chair Dave Kunes, who was in office when the tax problem originated, made an $8,427 contribution to cover the initial liability on August 2. MCDCC’s federal account sent that amount to the IRS on August 23. However, the committee also sent an additional $4,636 to the IRS on September 6 to cover penalties and interest. If it were not for the latter payment, MCDCC would have been up $4,746 for the year including both of its campaign accounts.
How does MCDCC’s fundraising in 2023 compare to prior years? Let’s start with the state account. The chart below shows receipts by year since 2005, when records begin. The chart shows that the amount raised in 2023 is the lowest in the time series.
Now let’s look at the same data adjusted for inflation using the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria CPI-U, in 2023 dollars. This makes the 2023 take look even worse.
Let’s put the above chart in perspective. The year after a gubernatorial election is typically not a good fundraising year. In real 2023 dollars, in the prior four years after a gubernatorial election (2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019), MCDCC’s state committee averaged receipts of $49,453. The take for 2023 was less than half that average.
Let’s look at the federal account. The chart below shows receipts by year since 1990 in nominal dollars.
In federal dollars, 2023 was not a terrible year. Receipts were higher than in the prior five years. Now let’s look at the same data in real 2023 dollars, again using the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria CPI-U.
This chart shows a slightly different story. While 2023 was better than the prior five years, it falls short of MCDCC’s best years during its 2007-17 heyday.
Now let’s add together the real dollar numbers for both state receipts and federal receipts for 2005-2023.
When both the federal and state accounts are combined using real 2023 dollars, total receipts in calendar year 2023 ($118,311) are higher than in two of the last four years. Let’s be fair – the prior year was 2022, a gubernatorial election year in which state receipts normally spike.
And so there is ammunition for both the critics and defenders of MCDCC. The central committee’s leadership can point to recent improvement in federal fundraising. The critics can point to a bad year in state fundraising and a failure to recover to the boom years of the Obama presidency.
Let the debates continue!