''The DNC's record fundraising year''

"Hotline on Call reports:

"The Democratic National Committee raised more than $51M in 2005, a record for an off-year and twenty percent higher than the comparable period in 2003."

20 percent higher than the year before a presidential election? I bet it's much higher than in 2001, which is truly the "comparable period". And, let's not forget that Dean couldn't solicit the million-dollar soft-dollar donations that made up the bulk of the pre-2004 DNC.

Now, of course, the RNC blew those numbers away -- $100 million -- but that was to be expected. Republicans always outraise Democrats. The question is whether Democrats can work toward closing that gap. And Dean has shown that he can bring in the bucks at an unprecedented rate despite facing more obstacles to raising that money than ever before.

Update: I forgot to mention -- when Dean goes on fundraising trips to the states he lets the locals keep the money. He's raising money for the state parties, which isn't reflected in these numbers. The state parties love him for it. In the past, people like McAuliffe would come in and vaccum up money from the locals and send it to DC. This makes these numbers all that much more remarkable."-by Kos on Kos.

Update: Kos updates the story with a new post, "The Dean misinformation campaign."