Dean & Spontaneous Demonstrations of Fundraising Prowess
In a recent column, E.J. Dionne, Jr. of the Washington Post wrote about Governor Howard Dean’s unorthodox, but successful fundraising. Dean, unlike other Democrats, has a strong small donor base. This is an important advantage, the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law which bans soft money, which use to be a major source of campaign cash for the Democrats. It is impressive that Dean has been able to raise more than 7 million dollars mostly through small donors, even more impressive that this windfall was in large the product of spontaneous self-organization by Dean supporters. However, there is a downside to relying on small donors. Usually, building a small donor base is difficult and inefficient. In the case of Dean, where the donations were the result of grassroots enthusiasm, there is the danger that the Party might become bound to some of its more zealous members, which could force the Democrats to drift so far toward the left that they become unelectable.

A good while back the3 Washiongton Monthly ran an article of the difficulties and dangers of building a small donor base. Unfortunately, they seem to have made it a "subscriber only" piece on their web site.