Wow, here’s a sign that online political fundraising has gone full-on mainstream: Democratic campaign finance website ActBlue announced today that it’s reached the impressive total of 1,000,000 individual donations (an excuse for a celebratory fundraising pitch, natch). Most importantly, the money’s been spread among candidates up and down the political ladder, meaning that online fundraising and the small-donor revolution aren’t just for presidential campaigns. And, Republicans STILL haven’t created an effective equivalent, despite an attempt or two, meaning that they’ve effectively ceded this ground to the Dems. Better hope those 527s pan out, guys….
– cpd
A conduit fundraising site helps some raise money, but it is clearly not necessary to be a strong force in small-dollar fundraising. See Scott Brown.
Martha Coakley had ActBlue available to her, but it was Scott Brown who dominated among the very type of donors that ActBlue is supposed to help Democrats reach.
Excellent point! But that was a special election, so Brown could aggregate donors from across the country. In a general election, the fact that one side has easy access to online fundraising but the other side’s candidates have to put the pieces together on their own has got to make a difference.