Party Financial Activity Continues to Grow
| For Immediate Release February 21, 2002 |
Contact: |
Bob Biersack Ron Harris Ian Stirton Kelly Huff |
PARTY FINANCIAL ACTIVITY CONTINUES TO GROW WASHINGTON -- Financial activity of the two major political parties expanded in 2001, according to figures compiled by the Federal Election Commission. All party committees registered with the FEC reported raising $243.7 million in federal funds (hard money) and spending $195.1 million during the off-election year, an increase of 22% in hard money receipts and 15% in disbursements over 1999 totals. Hard-money fundraising in 2001 increased by 40% and spending grew by 20% when compared with 1997, the last off-year with no Presidential campaign. Republican Party committees registered with the FEC reported federal receipts of $166.3 million and disbursements of $128.5 million in 2001, increases of 31% and 16% respectively over the previous election cycle. All Democratic Party committees registered with the Commission reported federal receipts (hard money) of $77.4 million between January 1, 2001 and December 31, 2001, and federal disbursements of $66.6 million during the same period. These represented increases of 8% in receipts and 14% in disbursements when compared to 1999. Most of these federal funds come directly from individuals, who contributed a total of $151.8 million to Republican Party committees. PACs and candidates’ campaigns contributed an additional $5.6 million in hard money to Republican Party committees. Democratic Party committees received a total of $56.7 million directly from individuals and an additional $8.3 million from PACs and candidate committees. While these totals include federal receipts for committees at the national, state, and local levels, national party committees also must report their nonfederal (soft money) financial activity to the FEC. During 2001 Democratic national party committees reported a total of $68.6 million in nonfederal receipts and $47.9 million in nonfederal spending (both 26% more than in 1999) while their Republican counterparts reported $100.1 million in nonfederal receipts (68% more than in 1999) and $88.9 million in nonfederal spending (110% above 1999 levels). This growth in nonfederal activity is even more pronounced when compared with 1997, the last off-year with no Presidential campaign. Nonfederal receipts have more than doubled for both national parties since 1997. The following table lists federal and nonfederal receipts for only national committees during the off-year of the past three election cycles:
Tables on the following pages detail party receipts and disbursements in off-election years during the past six election cycles. National party soft money activity is identified for each of the nonfederal accounts of the six national committees, and national party transfers to state parties during the year are also included. Links to Tables in Both HTML and EXCEL (requires Microsoft Excel) formats:
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