House Party Committees Double Down on Grass-Roots Donations

By Emily Cadei | March 30, 2009 6:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The National Republican Congressional Committee made one final pitch for donations before the first quarter fundraising deadline ends Tuesday at midnight.

"Our first FEC reporting deadline is less than 33 hours away," NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions of Texas wrote in an e-mail appeal to supporters Monday afternoon, adding that the committee is less than $50,000 from reaching an undisclosed fundraising goal for the quarter.

As an extra incentive, Sessions and fellow Minoirty Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio, Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana, Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, and Chief Deputy Whip Kevin McCarthy of California have pledged to match total contributions up to $50,000.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has been promoting its own "Million Dollar Match" program in the period's closing days. In a recent DCCC e-mail authored by Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of State, asked supporters to help the committee meet its $1 million grass-roots fundraising goal and promised that the donation would be "matched 2-to-1 by Democrats in Congress, tripling its impact."

"This is the only FEC deadline during President Obama's first 100 days," the e-mail added. "The world will use it as a report card on the President's first months in office and an indication of how strongly we stand behind his agenda for change."

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