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Despite outrage from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats about billionaires like the Koch brothers donating to the GOP, statistics show Democrats are outraising Republicans this election season.

Sheila Krumholz of the Center for Responsive Politics estimated, "the Democratic senatorial campaign committee has raised $111 million compared to $82 million for their Republican counterpart."

Even when you take all sources of money, from all donors for all races, the Democrats still lead. "It's about $595 million for the Democrats, and about $450 million for the Republicans," Krumholz said.

In the run-up to the Nov. 4 election, the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee made a last minute push and just announced it raised $15.5 million in September, its best month ever.

Political analyst Michael Barone of the American Enterprise Institute said, "that's a change and it says that Republican contributors big and small are martialing to the cause."

Although the Democrats have enjoyed a money lead for some time, they still are asking for more cash. A Democratic campaign group on October 7 urged,"Today's ad buy deadline is the most critical of the election. This is our last chance to rescue Democrats drowning in Koch-funded attacks. Can you chip in $5 or more?"

Ben Weider of the Center for Public Integrity, another watchdog group, noted, "everyone kind of likes to play the underdog role. And so it's been very interesting to see fundraising ads, particularly related to Senate races where Democrats are claiming that, you know, they're losing the race."

Much of the Democratic party's money comes from the president's non-stop efforts to raise cash, having done more than 50 fundraisers, seven just last week, all closed to the media, including one at the home of real estate baron Rich Richman -- a name Democrats would likely ridicule if he were giving to Republicans.

Democratic Senate candidates, while happy to get the money, sometimes try to avoid being seen with an unpopular president. According to Barone, that's "because these candidates are running in states where President Obama's job performance rating is negative, in many cases highly negative."

In some recent polls, his personal approval rating stands at only 40 percent.

Read the original:
Democrats outraising Republicans as election nears

By Jeremy Diamond, CNN

updated 12:06 PM EDT, Wed October 15, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Washington (CNN) -- As Democrats head into the last throes of the campaign season, the party and the president are facing some of their lowest favorability and approval ratings, respectively, according to two new surveys.

President Barack Obama hit his lowest point in the eyes of the public according to that poll, with just 40% of Americans approving of his job performance, the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll released Wednesday shows. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll also released Wednesday handed Obama a similar 42% approval rating.

And Obama could be pulling down his party as just 39% of Americans hold a favorable view of the Democratic Party, the lowest in modern history according to the Washington Post/ABC News poll.

Obama steps (cautiously) back into campaign mode

That's a ten-point drop for Democrats from the same poll in August and the decline comes in part from a dropoff among African-Americans and women -- two key voter blocs Democrats will need to turn out on Nov. 4.

The numbers come less than three weeks before Election Day in a cycle where the President's sagging approval numbers have been blamed for impacting Democratic candidates, especially in crucial toss-up Senate races that could help Republicans take full control of Congress.

Republicans have picked up on the President's low approval ratings in battleground states by linking Democratic -- and even independent candidates in Kansas and South Dakota -- to the president.

Originally posted here:
Surveys say Obama and Democrats hit lowest marks

The Democrats are trying to tie Ebola to the Republicans.

This is a political season, so this is not surprising.

The theory goes that because Republicans want to cut spending, they have cut critical resources that could have gone to pay for an Ebola vaccine.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) director even directly said that if it werent for budget cuts, we wouldnt be having this Ebola problem.

Democrats, more broadly, have been blaming the sequester on Republicans, and they are making the point that if there had been no sequester, there would have been ample resources to combat Ebola.

There are several problems with this theory.

First, the sequester was Obamas idea. He pushed it because he didnt want to make entitlement cuts.

Second, the president never asked directly for an Ebola supplemental or anything close to it. Had he said: I need $2 billion to deal with Ebola, he would have some ground to stand on.

But he could never quite tear himself away from the golf course to spend any time worrying about Ebola. He never requested a supplemental to pay for Ebola spending. He never asked Congress for any help on Ebola.

Third, the Republicans wanted to cut spending because the president, when the Democrats controlled the Congress, went on a spending binge, which squandered a trillion dollars of taxpayer money. Remember Solyndra?

Read the rest here:
How Democrats are playing politics with Ebola

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Editor's note: Sally Kohn is an activist, columnist and television commentator. Follow her on Twitter @sallykohn. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) -- The midterm elections are less than three weeks away, but by several measures, Democrats have already won.

Sure, elections are about the race to the top between competing candidates, but they're also a barometer on long-term trends, issues and party trajectories. While the winners of this season's sprints have yet to be determined, Democrats look well-positioned for the lengthier political marathon. How?

1. There's still a contest for the Senate

Sally Kohn

Historically, the party in the White House tends to lose seats in Congress during midterm elections. The second midterm election of a two-term president -- as this election is for President Barack Obama -- is usually brutal. Only six times since the Civil War has a president come close to gaining seats in both chambers in a sixth-year election.

Add to that this year there are simply more Democratic-held Senate seats up for grabs -- with more ranked "toss ups" than Republican-held seats -- and the very fact that Democrats still have a shot at holding onto the Senate is, as Vice President Joe Biden might say, a BFD.

2. Democratic policies are emerging as third rails

Witness Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, running for re-election in Kentucky, and the dance he did around Obamacare during a debate. McConnell insisted that he would repeal Obamacare "root and branch" but somehow, miraculously, keep the law's state-based health insurance exchange.

More:
4 ways Democrats have already won

Iowa Democrats Call for Ernst Conflict of Interest Investigation [WOI, 10-8-14]

By: Iowa Democratic Party

Read more here:
Iowa Democrats Call for Ernst Conflict of Interest Investigation [WOI, 10-8-14] - Video