The RNC is expected to continue supporting Walker through election day. DNC is MIA in Wisconsin

The Republican National Committee has said it’ll kick in whatever it takes to keep Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in office.

But Democrats in Washington won’t commit to spending big, even though their candidate has been outraised 25-to-1 so far. And in Wisconsin, that’s left the local activists fuming.


With just three weeks until the June 5 recall election in Wisconsin, Democrats in the state are still waiting for a check they asked the Democratic National Committee to send. And the Obama campaign hasn’t given them any cash either.

“I think [there’s] the perception that there’s not enough overall national money, national support from both individual donors and D.C. coming through the door and we’ve got three weeks — we need that money now,” said a Wisconsin Democratic operative. “I think that’s individual donors from around the country, I think that’s the DNC, I think that’s labor, I think that’s super PACs, I think that’s whoever is willing to contribute to make that gap smaller.”

Meanwhile, the RNC is expected to continue supporting Walker through election day.

“We’re all in here,” said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. “We will be involved for as much as we need to be involved. We haven’t put a limit on the number.” The RNC has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the race, he added.

Wisconsin Democrats have asked the Democratic National Committee for $500,000 to help elect Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett — but that check hasn’t arrived yet.

Graeme Zielinski, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said the state party has made a financial request to the DNC and that “it is pending.” He declined to confirm the amount, but didn’t dispute the $500,000 figure, first reported by The Washington Post.

“We’re going to get outspent 10-to-1, maybe 20-to-1,” Zielinski said. “We just need the resources to activate our superior get-out-the-vote operation, which we could. But we can’t do it for free. Campaigns cost money. Scott Walker has owned the air. We believe we can own the ground.” Zielinski noted he’s confident that the DNC and other allies will support state Democrats.

But top national Democrats have been evasive about their financing plans.

DNC spokeswoman Melanie Roussell declined to comment on the $500,000 request. And Obama campaign deputy manager Stephanie Cutter said that she wasn’t sure whether the DNC would shell out cash.

“I don’t know the answer to that question on the money,” Cutter told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd on Tuesday morning when asked whether the DNC would pony up for the recall.

The Obama campaign isn’t planning to spend money directly on the recall, a campaign official told POLITICO last week. Cutter said Tuesday that the campaign has committed to help with get-out-the-vote efforts and “doing basically everything we can to bring the Democrat over the finish line.”

Still, Roussell said the Obama campaign and the DNC are committed to the recall. DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz will host a fundraiser for Barrett later this month.

Democratic Governors Association Executive Director Colm O’Comartun said state and national Democrats have a plan in place to finance Democrats’ efforts in Wisconsin.

In addition to the $2 million the DGA has already spent on the recall, “We will be sending more,” he said, but he declined to give a dollar figure. He said he has “every confidence” that it will be fully funded by the DGA, state Democrats and other allies.

But with Walker dramatically outraising Barrett and Republicans outgunning them on the airwaves, Democrats in Wisconsin want more cash now.

Walker has raised more than $25 million since January 2011 to defend his seat, and has spent more than $20 million, according to data compiled by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. In contrast, Barrett — a late entry into the contest who won the primary just last week — had raised only $832,000 by the end of the April reporting period and spent $809,000.

Republicans have also outspent Democrats by about 4-to-1 on the airwaves in the state this year, according to a Gannett Wisconsin analysis released earlier this month.

The final push on the airwaves or on the ground by either side could still help tip the scales in the contested race. A Rasmussen poll released last week showed Walker with a 5-point lead over Barrett, with a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points. A Marquette University Law School poll released before the Democratic primary showed Walker and Barrett locked in a dead heat.