JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – While Missouri Democrats made significant financial gains, Missouri Republicans found themselves standing on much less stable financial footing at the end of 2013.
The Missouri Republican Party’s state committee ended the most recent fundraising quarter with $7,282 on hand.
In the fourth fundraising quarter, Republicans raised only $52,626, but spent more than $91,790. Nearly $64,000 of that was spent on transferring funds to the party’s federal committee to cover payroll expenses. Aside from the $64,000 from the state committee, the Missouri Republican Party’s federal committee raised $84,000, ending the quarter with just over $24,680 on hand.
In all, the Missouri Republican party’s state structure ended 2013 with $31,960 on hand – with nearly $18,000 less than they started the quarter. That comes as the party is preparing to host statewide Lincoln Days event in Springfield and help out in races in 2014. Matt Wills, a spokesman for the party, said the party will certainly be able to pay for the event and is constantly seeing financial improvements.
“We have several large fundraising dinners scheduled,” he said, noting an upcoming ‘Sprit of Enterprise’ dinner on February 19 in St. Louis featuring Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina. “Lincoln Days is not so much an expense as it also is a fundraiser for us. It’s not a free event.”
While Republicans in the legislature rail against Democrats for wanting to “spend more than they take in,” the party itself did just that. Combined, in the fourth quarter, the state and federal committees spent $17,500 more than their total raised. Wills said the party is not in trouble financially and that the numbers should be looked at in full – noting the cash on hand prior to starting the quarter.
Why is the party in such a financial rut? Wills said the had to catch up on the bills and contracts left to them by the previous administration led by Chairman David Cole.
“We’re getting out of some bad contracts. If you look at the expenditures relative to where they were in previous years, we’re significantly under where we were,” he said. “We took a hard look at our expense and looked at what was needed and not needed.”
After cutting back on staff, the party is down to just four employees. One of those is Molly White, who has taken over the in-house fundraising work which includes digital and a mail components. Wills said the staff is catching up on some of the institutional knowledge that was lost when former Chairman David Cole’s administration left and that they are on the right track moving forward.
Wills said when Ed Martin took over as chairman, “there wasn’t a lot left to us for planning for 2013.”
“There was some bad blood between Chairman Cole and Martin, which played out in the chairman’s race last year. Getting past all of that was a good point for the state committee,” he said.
The Missouri GOP’s current fundraising strength is tucked away in the Senate campaign committee. Senate Republicans have more in their committee than the Missouri Republican State Committee, the Missouri Republican Party’s federal committee, and the House Republican Campaign Committee – combined.
The state of the House Republican Campaign Committee is strong, but their progress was relatively stalled in the final quarter of 2013. They Raised $115,700 but spent $110,870 – ending the quarter about 1.5 percent better than they started.
The Missouri Democratic Party, itself, has the fundraising strength the Missouri Republican Party is lacking. Even removing the $100,000 contribution by Attorney General Chris Koster, the Missouri Democratic Party raised more for its state committee than the Republican Party did. Koster’s contribution – meant to help House Democrats – was placed in the state party. Joe Duffy, executive director of the state party, said there will be collaborative effort under one umbrella between the state committee and the House Democratic Victory Committee as they look to take back seats in the General Assembly.
But while Democrats lead in raising state dollars, they lack in raising federal dollars. Democrats ended the quarter worse off during than they were before – down $47,200 from October. Still, combined, the party’s state and federal infrastructure ended the quarter with a total of $209,000 on hand, nearly seven times the Republicans’ figure.
Missouri Democrats are carrying significantly more debt than Republicans. They ended the quarter with more than $216,700 in debt after paying more than $2,000 in the fourth quarter. Republicans, meanwhile, carried no debt.
The House Democratic Victory Committee ended the quarter better off than they started. They raised some $60,000 – ending the year with nearly $113,600 on hand. They started the year with $48,000 on hand, but terminated that committee to start fresh after the party announced a renewed focus on legislative races in June.
Senate Democrats are maintaining their committee. In fact, by percentage, they’re maintaining the same fundraising speed as Senate Republicans. In the third quarter, both committees had about a 38 percent increase in their accounts.