Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2005 | 11:05 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is asserting his role as a party fundraiser-in-chief, criss-crossing the country to chase down dollars for his political action committee.
Reid's Searchlight Leadership Fund raked in $415,862 during the first six months of the year, according documents filed with the Federal Election Committee.
That's less than several other prominent senators netted for their PACs, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. ($1.9 million), Sen Evan Bayh, D-Ind. ($1.1 million), and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. ($715,000).
But those senators are often mentioned as potential presidential candidates and may be raising money for those races. Reid is off to a solid start for a new Democratic leader with no presidential aspirations, experts said.
The nearly $416,000 that Searchlight raised in six months compares with $573,000 the fund raised in all of the two-year 2004 election cycle, and $1 million in all of the 2002 cycle.
"It shows you everybody likes a leader," University of Nevada-Reno political science professor Eric Herzik said.
Democratic donors are responding to Reid, said Phil Singer, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, or DSCC, the fundraising organization for Senate Democrats.
"He tells it like it is," Singer said. "He's a straight talker who is in the process of leading the Democrats out of the wilderness."
Since 1998, the Searchlight fund has been a reliable machine for the gathering of money for Reid's Democratic allies, but Reid may be priming it now to be a bigger force in Democratic politics, experts said.
"It will be a big test this cycle to see how much the DSCC raises under (DSCC Chairman Charles) Schumer and Reid, and how well Reid does going out and raising money for other Democrats, especially as the election gets closer," said Steven Weiss, spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign money.
Searchlight's current cash flow reflects the sophisticated fundraising operation of a Senate party leader. Among the Searchlight expenses this year: fancy dinners, fine hotels, corporate airplane flights, and $400 gift baskets for people who host fundraising events in their homes.
Modern politics is expensive and congressional leaders are expected to be rainmakers whether they like it or not, experts said.
And as Democratic leader, Reid is being judged not merely by his actions inside the Capitol, but by his performance at chicken dinner events nationwide, experts said.
"It's another full-time part of the job," Herzik said. "If you have money, you can help your friends, help the party, and favors are returned. If you're not able to raise money, you become less of a player."
Of the money Searchlight has netted so far this year, Reid gave $71,500 to candidates and other political committees, including Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.; Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.; Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.V.; and Senate candidate Bob Casey of Pennsylvania. Reid also funneled money to local candidates including North Las Vegas mayoral candidate Andres Ramirez; Las Vegas City Councilman Steve Ross; Las Vegas City Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian; and North Las Vegas municipal court candidate Willia Chaney.
But Reid's Searchlight fund spent most of the money -- nearly $300,000 -- on other types of "operating" expenses, including travel, meals, phones, utilities, package shipping, legal fees, payroll fees, computer support, storage space and rental cars.
The expenses are standard fare for running an aggressive fundraising operation, Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said.
The cash flow also reflects a shift in Reid's fundraising priorities, from a focus last year on his own personal re-election fund, Friends For Harry Reid, to this year maintaining the Searchlight Fund as a money-raising machine for the party and fellow Democrats, aides said.
Last year, Friends For Harry Reid netted $7 million, compared with about $573,000 for Searchlight. Reid easily won re-election and ultimately gave some of his re-election money to allies, including a $500,000 donation in early January to the DSCC.
Already this year Reid has hosted about 40 fundraisers, mostly to benefit the DSCC and Searchlight, aides said. Reid has held three or four campaign events a month in Washington, typically breakfast or dinner events. Reid held seven events during a whirlwind tour in California at the end of May.
In addition, Reid has held Las Vegas fundraisers for Sens. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Kent Conrad, D-N.D., at the Bali Hai Golf Club and one for Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wa., at Turnberry Place.
With Congress out on a traditional August recess, Reid hit the road again this week for seven fundraising events in six cities over three days.
Observers said they expect Searchlight will set new fundraising records.
"It would be news if Reid assumed the leadership role and didn't raise more money than he ever has before," said Quin Monson, assistant director of Brigham Young University's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy.
Itemized Searchlight expenses offer a glimpse inside the alternately mundane and high-flying world of congressional leadership fundraising that is rarely seen except by professional fundraisers, the politicians they serve, and the wealthy donors they target.
Among Searchlight's expenses year:
Searchlight also pays a slew of bills for office operations, including $818 worth of faxing one day last May, and $1,600 a month for accounting fees.
Some of the fund's biggest expenses are for people. The fund spent $48,000 to the communications firm GMMB for political consulting. In addition it paid political consultant Andrei Cherny $14,000.
The two-person Searchlight fundraising office is run by Dwyer, who earns $6,394 a month in salary, and Mark Valentini, who earns $2,054 a month. Donald Wilson, a Searchlight fundraiser in Nevada, earns $1,262 a month.
Searchlight also pays about $750 of the $1,000 rent for its basement space in a red brick townhouse a few blocks from Capitol Hill, where there are two faded U.S. flags in the window and a Harry Reid bumper sticker on the door. The Friends for Harry Reid fund, Reid's personal re-election fund, pays for the remainder of the rent.
archive
