House chairmen respond to Speaker Pelosi’s call for cash

House committee chairmen who were lagging behind in their party dues have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars over the last several months.

The large donations to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) are in response to intense pressure applied by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.).

{mosads}Both leaders have warned against overconfidence, leaning hard on senior Democrats in comfortable seats to meet their dues.

Seven months ago, neither Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) nor Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) had given a dime of the $500,000 they are expected to transfer from their campaign accounts to the DCCC.

But since then, Obey and Dingell have each hit their $500,000 marks and also contributed to other Democratic campaign accounts.

Similarly, Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) was behind in her dues earlier this year, but now has given $425,000, according to a DCCC document obtained by The Hill.

“Exclusive committee chairs,” including Dingell, Obey and Slaughter, are tasked with contributing at least $500,000 each, while the tab for other House chairmen and exclusive subcommittee chairmen is $250,000.

The other exclusive chairmen are Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Ways and Means panel Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.). Frank has given the DCCC $650,000; Rangel has donated $1 million.

Senior aides and members close to the party’s election arm confirmed that Van Hollen began tightening the screws in September. One senior Democrat described it as “a pounding.”

Pelosi, meanwhile, has publicly and privately called on her colleagues to reach deep in their pockets to help finance efforts to grow the Democratic majority. Pelosi recently predicted that there will be at least 250 Democrats in the House next year.

There are 235 Democrats in the lower chamber, with one vacancy in a Democratic-leaning seat.

When asked during her interview with PBS’s Charlie Rose earlier this week if Democrats could expand their majority beyond 250 with more money, Pelosi responded, “Oh yes, definitely.”

{mospagebreak}“This was about discipline,” said one member close to both leadership and the Democratic campaign committee. “There is a financial aspect to this, too, which is that early buys were investments — smart ones — but that needed to be paid for in cash. But this was also about making sure that members lived up to their commitments.”

Throughout much of the 2006 cycle — when Democrats were in the minority — then-DCCC Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) clashed publicly with members who fell short in their dues. At times, the names of lawmakers who owed money were leaked to the press, infuriating some rank-and-file members, but also creating an incentive for them to pay up.

{mosads}Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), who have been mentioned to succeed Van Hollen as DCCC head next year, both posted impressive fundraising numbers. Among rank-and-file members, Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) contributed $300,000 to the DCCC, $100,000 more than her dues.

“We always appreciate members’ help,” said DCCC spokesman Doug Thornell, “which, along with our grassroots and online support, allows us to stay aggressively on the offense against Republicans and their shadowy soft-money buddies.”

Not all Democrats have met their dues. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), who was passed over to chair the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, has not given anything to the DCCC. Her office declined to comment for this article.

House Democratic leaders have stressed to their members not to be complacent, even though they have huge fundraising advantages over their Republican counterparts and are basking in political momentum.

“The message was we need to be campaigning like were 15 points behind, because at the end of the day there are just a lot of jump balls out there,” said a Democratic aide with ties to the party’s fundraising arm.

Political analysts are predicting that Democrats will likely pick up between a dozen and two dozen seats, but that many House races will be decided by a few percentage points.