Fund Raising Explanations

Drudge links to a Michael Cooper article in the New York Times today entitled "Democrats Surpass Republicans in Fund-raising." The article points out have Democratic candidates have been out fund-raising Republican candidates by a margin of 2 to 1. Two explanations for this. First, the number of potential candidates from each party. For the Democrats it seems politically accepted that Clinton will be the party's nomination. In contrast, on the Republican side, the ultimate candidate can realistically be anyone of four candidates. With the outcome so up in the air, Republicans could be waiting until after the primaries before they make a donation. Second, historically after a political party holds the executive branch for two consecutive term, the opposition party out fund-raises the outgoing party. Such was the case in the 2000 election when Republicans out fund-raised the Democrats, which had held the executive for two consecutive terms, 150.7 million to 63.1.