In 2016, I donated to a lot of Democratic candidates who lost. I made a resolution that I would donate only to the DNC from then on as they would probably be able to allocate funds more effectively. I have only the vaguest notion of what the DNC does, however. Is there anything wrong with my approach?
My understanding is that the DSCC (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee) works directly to elect Democratic Senators, the DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) works directly to elect Democratic House members, and the DNC helps support both of them, and presidential campaigns, and also does various other forms of party organizing. I think donations to the DSCC and DCCC are likely to be the best donations that are fungible between various marginal races but not fungible to things other than electoral success, while donations to the DNC can go to other things as well (which may or may not equally be priorities for you).
So if I give to the DNC, I’m donating to all the political campaigns that the DNC deems competitive, plus things like young Democrat clubs at universities? That seems fine. Of course, they have access to a lot of internal polling and other electoral lore that I don’t know about, right? It seems like they should make more intelligent decisions than I do. It would be weird if they didn’t.
As long as they manage to avoid factional capture, I guess. (I've heard that the RNC has effectively become an instrument to Trump's interests rather than the Republican party's interests, for example. I have no idea what the internal politics of the DNC is like, by contrast, which is probably a good sign!)
Edit to add: actually, I recall the chair (Jaime Harrison) saying some really stupid stuff in support of Biden's continued candidacy long after it was clear that he should step down. So that significantly reduces my confidence in their judgment.
In 2016, I donated to a lot of Democratic candidates who lost. I made a resolution that I would donate only to the DNC from then on as they would probably be able to allocate funds more effectively. I have only the vaguest notion of what the DNC does, however. Is there anything wrong with my approach?
My understanding is that the DSCC (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee) works directly to elect Democratic Senators, the DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) works directly to elect Democratic House members, and the DNC helps support both of them, and presidential campaigns, and also does various other forms of party organizing. I think donations to the DSCC and DCCC are likely to be the best donations that are fungible between various marginal races but not fungible to things other than electoral success, while donations to the DNC can go to other things as well (which may or may not equally be priorities for you).
So if I give to the DNC, I’m donating to all the political campaigns that the DNC deems competitive, plus things like young Democrat clubs at universities? That seems fine. Of course, they have access to a lot of internal polling and other electoral lore that I don’t know about, right? It seems like they should make more intelligent decisions than I do. It would be weird if they didn’t.
As long as they manage to avoid factional capture, I guess. (I've heard that the RNC has effectively become an instrument to Trump's interests rather than the Republican party's interests, for example. I have no idea what the internal politics of the DNC is like, by contrast, which is probably a good sign!)
Edit to add: actually, I recall the chair (Jaime Harrison) saying some really stupid stuff in support of Biden's continued candidacy long after it was clear that he should step down. So that significantly reduces my confidence in their judgment.
I guess it’s not their job to have original ideas though. They just defend the party line. And no news is good news, as you say.