The April FEC Report for the Democratic Party of Georgia is now filed, and well, the news just keeps getting worse.
April 28th was the Democratic Party of Georgia’s major fundraiser for the year, the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, and thus most revenues for the event will be reflected in the April report. Previous reports show the JJ Dinner netted revenues of over $800K in the 2008 election year and around $500K in 2009 and 2010. The 2011 dinner fell substantially off that mark, showing only around $300K in revenue… making it the largest financial failure in recent JJ history. Sadly, it would appear the 2012 JJ has surpassed the 2011 JJ for that “largest financial failure” title… not a good thing for Georgia Democrats, especially with 2012 being a critical election year, JJ revenues were expected to at least return to 2009/2010 levels, if not possibly back to 2008 levels.
The April FEC report shows the DPG only raised $162,839.08 in April and spent $143,391.27. The DPG’s average monthly revenue for the year is around $83,000 (and $10,000 of this months revenue was a repayment) meaning that around $70,000 (likely less due to the DNC Victory Fund influx) of this month’s total income could be attributed to JJ, of course that also means the DPG’s expenses were higher this month due to the cost of JJ. It appears that some JJ funding came in previous months, and some could still be outstanding… but just a elementary look would appear to say that this year’s JJ will gross under $200,000. That would certainly set a new record for worst performing JJ.
This leaves the DPG with $76,856.84 cash on hand and $35,436.34 in outstanding debt leaving the DPG a net worth of $41,420.50.
It does appear that DPG Chairman Mike Berlon has kept his pledge to repay the party $10,000 for payments made to DPG Executive Committee member Tasso Knight. The DPG was also the benefactor of the $10,000 the DNC gives it in “50 state strategy” funds and a large influx from the DNC Victory Fund, which is a direct mail program the state parties benefit from.
Last month, in a response to a post at Blogging While Blue, I speculated that Super PAC organizations couldn’t take over the role of the state party due to Georgia’s laws which allow state parties almost unlimited fundraising ability. While the state party will always be the only organization able to register candidates, it appears that the DPG may sadly be heading on a course to make itself just that insignificant.
While the DPG will always exist and be the organization that qualifies candidates, recent resignations, outside issues and extremely lackluster fundraising has left the road wide open for any other group that wishes to step forward and take the reigns on moving Georgia forward.
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