What Will Happen To Dorgan’s Campaign War Chest?
North Dakota Democrats have long benefited from a pipeline of money brought into the state by the federal delegation. Conrad, Dorgan and (to a lesser extent) Pomeroy raise millions of dollars each election cycle, and not just for their own campaigns. A good chunk of that money filters down to the state party as well for get-out-the-vote efforts and state-level campaigns.
This is why, despite state-level offices being dominated by Republicans, the state Democrat party routinely has more money than the NDGOP. In fact, the state Democrat party gets roughly 85% of its money from out of state sources. That compares to the NDGOP, which gets roughly the same percentage from in-state sources.
That trend is likely to continue whatever happens in the upcoming elections, (after all, Kent Conrad can continue to funnel that liberal out of state money into the state with no problems) but right now the big question is: What happens to Byron Dorgan’s campaign war chest?
Right now, according to Congressional Quarterly, Dorgan has $4.2 million in the bank. From what I’ve gathered, these are the choices Dorgan has under campaign finance laws:
- Give the money to a charity from which he and/or a spouse or relative doesn’t earn a salary
- Make unlimited transfers to national party committees
- Make unlimited transfers to the candidate’s committee for another federal office
- Transfer money to their state committees if state law allows
- Refund the money to donors
- Contribute up to $2,000 to another federal candidate’s campaign committee
- Contribute money to state and local candidates, subject to state and local law
Speculation in the state has had Dorgan giving the bulk of his money to Rep. Pomeroy (or his replacement if he doesn’t run) to help him hold that seat. But it appears as though Dorgan can only make a single, relatively small donation to Pomeroy. Dorgan could also give money to other entities (national committees, the state party, etc.) and have them direction contributions to Pomeroy, but even filtering it that way the law isn’t going to allow much to actually reach Pomeroy.
So what does Dorgan do with his mountain of cash?
Presuming he doesn’t have any desire to run for another federal office (and presuming he’s going to remain loyal to the state party), my guess is that he’ll spread some money around to some national committees but focus most of it to the state Democrat party which will then use it to bulk up state-level campaigns and their GOTV (“get out the vote”) efforts later this year.
Which is something Republicans in North Dakota should be bracing themselves for. I think Democrats are resigned to losing the Senate seat, so if they were smart they’ll probably focus a lot of attention on the state-level races. Peeling off a few statewide offices (every one of which is held by a Republican) as well as a majority in at least one of the houses of the state legislature would be a nice consolation prize after losing Dorgan’s seat in the Senate.
