Despite all the cheerleading coming from the media, despite all the early victory laps, despite all the busy chicken counting going on at the moment, some Democrats are, I suspect, very worried indeed about the projections of Democratic victory in November and are getting nervous. Harold Ickes is forming a last minute 527 group to try to rescue things. That, frankly, is exactly what this sounds like despite the spin the New York Times is trying to impart on the story.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 — Sensing both political danger and opportunity, a top Democratic operative and a group of major party donors have banded together to deliver a barrage of late advertising and on-the-ground action to secure Democratic victories in November.
The operative, Harold M. Ickes, a top aide to former President Bill Clinton and informal adviser to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and a group of allies are soliciting money for a new organization called the September Fund.
They hope to raise and spend as much as $25 million to influence not only crucial Congressional races but also other campaigns and ballot initiatives at the federal and state level.
Mr. Ickes was among the chief organizers of several groups that raised more than $200 million from wealthy liberals and labor unions in 2004 to try to defeat President Bush.
After months in which Democrats have fretted about how much support they would get from those sources this time around, Mr. Ickes is turning to many of the same donors in hopes that a surge of spending in the fall campaign’s final weeks will cement Democratic gains against a president and a Republican-led Congress whose approval ratings are sagging.
The sure sign that this is the action of someone getting very nervous is toward the end of the article:
America Coming Together and the Media Fund evaporated after the 2004 election, with many of their donors dispirited and apparently unwilling to participate in this year’s election. But Mr. Ickes, an aide said, became alarmed in late August about what he saw as a growing Republican financial advantage and feared a late salvo of negative advertising that could overwhelm Democrats in close races.
There is a lot happening right now. The real problem for Democrats is not the money per se, it is the way they are getting beaten on the ground where it really counts.
