GOP Raised a Record Sum In Year's First Quarter
The Republican National Committee raised a record $32.3 million from January through March, more than double the Democrats' total.
The RNC finished March with $26.2 million on hand, Chairman Ken Mehlman said yesterday. The money it collected in the first quarter tops its fundraising during the same period in 2001 and 2002, before the national party committees were banned from collecting corporate and unlimited donations. It also exceeds RNC's fundraising in early 2003, the first year the parties were limited to contributions from individuals and political action committees.
 
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The Democratic National Committee raised $13.8 million in the first quarter. That includes at least $1 million a week since former Vermont governor and presidential hopeful Howard Dean took over as chairman in mid-February. The committee has $7.2 million in the bank.
The DNC views it as a strong start for the year, spokeswoman Laura Gross said.
"We know we're headed in the right direction," she said. "We're going to keep working hard."
Dean and Mehlman have been traveling the country to raise money.
The Republican committee has held at least 19 fundraisers coast to coast. Yet to come is its biggest event of the year: an annual gala headlined by President Bush.
Rather than stockpiling the money to spend when the fall 2006 elections near, the RNC is starting to tap it now for campaign efforts.
Democrat Seeks Probe Of Social Security Polling
A Democratic senator asked congressional investigators to examine whether the Social Security Administration's use of taxpayer money to poll the public was legal.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (N.J.) made the request to the Government Accountability Office after the Associated Press reported Sunday that the federal agency had spent at least $2 million on Gallup Organization surveys since 1998.
Lautenberg said he was troubled by the surveys' inclusion of questions about changes to the retiree benefits program that President Bush has proposed, suggesting those questions were politically motivated.
"The SSA has paid for polling on the president's political agenda," Lautenberg wrote in a letter to Comptroller General David Walker, who runs the GAO.
"SSA is not authorized to poll on such data," he wrote, adding that Congress, not the Social Security agency, makes policy. "The SSA is charged with administering the current program, not gathering the public's view on changes to it."
Rep. Hyde to Step Down After His Current Term
Rep. Henry J. Hyde, the Illinois Republican who steered the impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton and championed government restrictions on abortion funding, announced yesterday that he will retire when his term ends in 2006.
Hyde, who is chairman of the House International Relations Committee, made the announcement on his Web site on his 81st birthday. He was first elected to the House in 1974 from his Bensenville district near O'Hare International Airport.
He named among his accomplishments protecting the lives of the unborn, improving the lives of the elderly, strengthening education and improving infrastructure in his district and Illinois, according to his Web site.
-- From News Services
