Facing a multimillion dollar shortfall when compared to their Democratic rivals, top House GOP leaders organized a crackdown on members last month, demanding they pay party “dues” — regular contributions to the National Republican Congressional Committee. And the whipping seems to have had an impact: In the days after media reports of the leadership’s irritation with deadbeat Republican caucus members, the cash began pouring in, including from lawmakers who’d been publicly shamed.

The bad news, however, is that the NRCC is still lagging behind its counterpart, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

While there is no official system of dues collection, it’s widely understood that members of Congress who want support from the party apparatus come election season must kick in money themselves, and any member hoping to attain a leadership position or prime committee slot must kick in much more. The fees reportedly escalate from tens of thousands of dollars for junior members to hundreds of thousands for senior members who want top committee posts.

But with the funds coming in at a slow or nonexistent trickle from some quarters, leaders decided to crack the whip. Out of 234 GOP members of the House, only about 120 had paid their dues in full, Politico reported in July. Several big names were on the list of debtors, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.).

According to OpenSecrets.org data and Federal Election Commission filings, on the day the Politico article was published, Goodlatte’s campaign and leadership PAC combined to give the NRCC $346,450. Then on July 31, his campaign transferred another $122,000. That’s in line with the contributions of many other committee chairs, though well below the $2.1 million that Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) has kicked in.

Several other members of the GOP caucus were named in the Politico article, and since its publication, most have responded.

For example, Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.), a member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, had given nothing through the end of June, but on July 10 (the day before he was named publicly), his campaign committee transferred $100,000 to the NRCC.

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Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.) had contributed $175,000 to the NRCC’s coffers through the end of June, but that apparently wasn’t enough to avoid getting named publicly as late on dues. On July 11, her committee transferred $64,000 to the NRCC, and then another $185,000 before the end of the month.

Another publicly outed deadbeat, Rep. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.) had given $141,500 before July, but on July 30 transferred an additional $50,000.

Not everyone has heeded the warnings. For example, House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) was also called out for being late on his NRCC dues; as of July 11, his campaign and leadership PAC had given $245,000, but the latest FEC filings show that neither of his committees has transferred any additional money to party organizations.

Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.) was the final GOP caucus member singled out by name. His campaign had only given $12,500 to the NRCC, and it has not contributed any additional money since the crackdown began. His leadership PAC, however, which had already contributed $15,000, did contribute $15,000 on July 24.

Overall, it appears that through the end of July, at least 174 campaign committees have transferred money to the NRCC which is six more than at the end of June. The total transferred by campaign committees for the month was $4.7 million. That may represent a number of members finally fulfilling their dues, but it’s actually less money than was transferred to the NRCC in June — $5.3 million.

And the NRCC still is lagging behind the DCCC. In the month of July, the Democratic committee raised $11.4 million, compared to $7.9 million for the NRCC (those figures include not only transfers and contributions from members of Congress, but also individual contributions and PAC donations). The NRCC actually raised less in July than it had in June, though this was its second biggest monthly haul of the election cycle.

Entering the final months before the election, the NRCC has raised $109.4 million and has $47.4 million in cash on hand, while the DCCC has cumulatively raised $136.1 million and has $56.6 million with which to fight.



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