Democratic National Committee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the principal organization governing the United States Democratic Party on a day to day basis. While it is responsible for overseeing the process of writing a platform every four years, the DNC's central focus is on campaign and political activity in support of Democratic Party candidates, and not on public policy. The DNC was established at the 1848 Democratic National Convention.[1]
The Democratic National Committee provides national leadership for the Democratic Party of the United States. It is responsible for promoting the Democratic political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and election strategy.
Its main counterpart is the Republican National Committee.
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[edit] Campaign role
The DNC is responsible for articulating and promoting the Democratic platform and coordinating party organizational activity. When the President is a Democrat, the party generally works closely with the President. In presidential elections it supervises the national convention and, both independently and in coordination with the presidential candidate, raises funds, commissions polls, and coordinates campaign strategy. Following the selection of a party nominee, the public funding laws permit the national party to coordinate certain expenditures with the nominee, but additional funds are spent on general, party-building activities.[2] There are state committees in every state, as well as local committees in most cities, wards, and towns (and, in most states, counties).
The chairperson of the DNC (currently Howard Dean) is elected by vote of members of the Democratic National Committee. The DNC is composed of the chairs and vice-chairs of each state Democratic Party Committee, two hundred members apportioned among the states based on population and generally elected either on the ballot by primary voters or by the State Democratic Party Committee, a number of elected officials serving in an ex-officio capacity, and a variety of representatives of major Democratic Party constituencies.
Dean ran against numerous candidates to win his position in early 2005. Rather than focusing just on close "swing states," Dean proposed the "50 State Strategy". His goal is for the Democratic Party to be committed to winning elections at every level in every region of the country, with Democrats organized in every single voting precinct in the country.[3]
The DNC establishes rules for the caucuses and primaries which choose delegates to the Democratic National Convention, but the caucuses and primaries themselves are most often run not by the DNC but instead by each state. All DNC members are superdelegates and can influence a close Presidential race. Outside of the process of nominating a Presidential candidate, the DNC's role in actually selecting candidates to run on the Democratic Party ticket is minimal.
The chairperson is a superdelegate for life.
[edit] DNC fundraising
In the 2001-2005 election cycle, the DNC and its affiliated committees (which includes numerous local committees and committees formed to coordinate expenditures for specific districts or races) raised a total of US $162,062,084, 42% of which was hard money. The largest contributor, with US $9,280,000 was the Saban Capital Group, founded in 2001 by Haim Saban, who also founded Fox Family group. Fred Eychaner, the owner of Newsweb Corporation, gave the second highest amount of money to the DNC and its affiliates, US $7,390,000. The third largest contributor was Steve Bing of Shangri-La Entertainment, who gave US $6,700,000.[4]
In the 2005-2006 election cycle, the DNC raised a total of US $61,141,823, all of it hard money. Most contributions came from small donors, giving less than $250, who accounted for over 80% of total dollars raised in the first half of 2006.[5] The three largest individual contributors were law firm Hill Wallack ($100,000), development firm Jonathan Rose & Co. ($100,000), and investment firm Bain Capital ($53,400).[6]
The DNC also relies on the monthly contributions of over 35,000 small-dollar donors through what is known as the Democracy Bonds program, set up by Howard Dean in the summer of 2005 [7].
In 2002, the Federal Election Commission fined the Democratic National Committee $115,000 for its part in fundraising violations in 1996.[8]
In June 2008, after Senator Barack Obama became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Dean announced that the DNC, emulating the Obama campaign, would no longer accept donations from federal lobbyists.[9]
[edit] Current DNC leadership
- National Chair: Howard Dean, former Governor of Vermont
- Vice Chairs:
- Mike Honda, U.S. Representative from California
- Linda Chavez-Thompson, Executive Vice President of the AFL-CIO
- Susan Turnbull, Maryland Democratic Party
- Lottie Shackelford, former Mayor of Little Rock, Arkansas
- Mark Brewer, Michigan Democratic Party Chair and President of the Association of State Democratic Chairs
- Treasurer: Andrew Tobias, businessman, author, and financial self-help guru
- Secretary: Alice Travis Germond
The National Advisory Board exists for purposes of fundrasing and advising the executive. The present chair is Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, former U.S. Ambassador to Portugal.
[edit] DNC National Chairpersons
1 General Chairperson
List from http://rulers.org/usgovt.html#parties
[edit] References
- ^ Party History. Retrieved on 2007-02-17.
- ^ "Public Funding of Presidential Elections". Federal Election Commission (2005-02). Retrieved on 2006-10-29.
- ^ A 50 State Strategy. Retrieved on 2007-02-17.
- ^ Top Soft Money Donors: 2002 Election Cycle. Retrieved on 2007-02-17.
- ^ Scream 2: The Sequel. Retrieved on 2007-02-17.
- ^ 2006 Top Contributors: Democratic National Committee. Retrieved on 2007-02-17.
- ^ 2006 Democracy Bonds. Retrieved on 2007-08-02.
- ^ "DNC fined for illegal 1996 fund raising", CNN.com, Sept. 23, 2002.
- ^ Rhee, Foon (June 5, 2008), "DNC bars Washington lobbyist money", The Boston Globe, <http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/06/dnc_bars_washin.html>
- ^ The Politcal Graveyard web site, A Database of Historic Cemeteries, accessed July 17, 2006.
- ^ "Superdelegate from Maine moves to Florida - Superdelegate total now 794". 2008 Democratic Convention Watch (2008-02-28). Retrieved on 2008-05-27.
[edit] See also
- Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
- Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
- Democratic Governors Association
- Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee
- National Conference of Democratic Mayors
- College Democrats of America
- Young Democrats of America
- Young Democrats of America High School Caucus
- Microtargeting
