Dems Filling Joe Wilson’s War Chest

http://robparis.blogspot.com/2009/09/you-distra...

Now Wilson must be aware that he was a bad boy. Rather than formally disapproving of Wilson, why not send him to the corner for 15 minutes to think about what he did. Wilson was obviously aware that the Democrats disapproved of what he said, and that the Republicans didn't. That's why the vote went along party lines. I don't see the point of formally disapproving. If the resolution was to make a point, then they should have made a point. Instead, Democrats chose to stick his nose in it and make him sleep in the backyard.

http://robparis.blogspot.com/2009/09/you-distra...

Now Wilson must be aware that he was a bad boy. Rather than formally disapproving of Wilson, why not send him to the corner for 15 minutes to think about what he did. Wilson was obviously aware that the Democrats disapproved of what he said, and that the Republicans didn't. That's why the vote went along party lines. I don't see the point of formally disapproving. If the resolution was to make a point, then they should have made a point. Instead, Democrats chose to stick his nose in it and make him sleep in the backyard.

Well, yeah. But how about a little context?

So far, both candidates have raised about the same amount. But in their last face-off, Wilson outspent Miller by 2-1 over the course of the campaign, and by 4-1 in the general election. And of that, fully half was fronted by Miller himself; in his entire campaign, he only raised about $300k.

Contrast that with the current situation. They're both sitting pretty with $1.5m+ - that's parity. To go from an enormous deficit, with his rival spending multiples of what he had, to parity, is a huge victory for Miller, and a worrisome development for Wilson.

I suspect that Wilson will ultimately outraise Miller yet again. But there's a long way to go before November of 2010. It looks like Miller will be campaigning with $2m+ to spend. That's more than enough cash to saturate the airwaves in a weak media market, to blanket the district with mailers, and to hire a large field organization. In other words, Wilson will probably have the edge, but spending $3m versus $2m is very different than spending $1.2m versus $600k. There's a point of diminishing returns in local races. Miller has the cash to compete, and that's a huge net loss for Wilson. There's just no other way to score it.

None of which contradicts the basic point that allowing Clyburn to settle a grudge at the expense of painting Wilson as a victim is, well, just plain stupid. But please don't pretend that the cash has been a wash. There's just no question that Miller is better off in the race for the incident, and there's really no amount that Wilson could raise at this point that would change that.