Blue dogs back in business

Introduction

For the past five months or so, we’ve been tracking the fascinating fundraising ups and downs of those fiscally conservative House Democrats, the so-called Blue Dogs. So as the year closes out, we’re here with a special holiday gift: the Dogs’ fundraising numbers for both October and November, which have finally snapped the downward trend they’d been experiencing since June.

Following the writing of our original Blue Dog piece, the group seemed to fall on hard times — or perhaps big givers got scared off by all the publicity the Dogs were getting as they began flexing their considerable muscles in the health care debate. After recording $1.1 million in receipts from other Political Action Committees between January to June, the Blue Dog PAC raised less than $87,000 between July and September. But the Dogs have to be encouraged by these new two-month numbers — $120,000 in all, with $82,500 in October and $37,500 November. In total, their 2009 haul (with December still to come) has been $1,316,001. This means the Blue Dogs are still roughly on pace to equal their record two-year total of $2.64 million in 2007-08.

Included in the October/November haul are the Blue Dog’s “Big Three” — contributions from groups related to health care reform ($17,500), climate change issues ($15,000) and financial regulation ($37,500). The health care contributions came almost entirely in October, before the House of Representatives passed their version of a health care bill on November 7. Of the 39 Democrats who voted against the bill, 24 of them were Blue Dogs.

The financial services contributions came in both October and November, well before the House passed the “Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009” last week. Of the 27 Democratic votes against this regulatory legislation, 13 were from Blue Dogs.

Hard to know when a climate change, health care reform, or Wall Street regulation bill will actually emerge from the Senate — but when one does, it will have to be reconciled with the House. Which means Blue Dog bowls could be filling up once more.