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Home Front: Politix
Democrat credit card bringing few $$$
2006-08-08
Arizona's Democratic Party introduced an "affinity" credit card last year to put a charge into political fundraising. To date, the party has lacked much affinity for its own idea.

The "JackassDonkey Card" - a MasterCard that puts a small percentage of the amount of each purchase into the state party's operating fund - was introduced amid no fanfare last year, said Jim Wagner, point man for the project. With fewer than 200 of the cards in use and a trickle of a cash flow, the Democrats are determined to get the word out. "This year, we're making an aggressive attempt to get it off the ground in Arizona," Wagner said. "This is a pain-free way to make donations to the party if you want to give and don't have the resources to do it."
Democrat philosophy: if something is a failure, spend more on it and push it harder.
The card, issued by a Maryland-based subsidiary of Great Britain's Barclay Bank, pays the party up to a $40 royalty when approved and then kicks in slightly less than a buck for every $100 purchased on it. "What we're hoping for is what we call a 'sustained owner program' that would help us maintain a certain amount of income throughout the whole year," Wagner said. "We're thinking seven to 10 years from now it can provide a steady flow."
For your successor party(-ies)
So far, it's hard to find anybody other than party officials with one in their wallet. Calls to the campaign headquarters of every Democrat in the mob running for Congressional District 8 resulted in either puzzlement or revelation. None of the committed volunteers or staffers owns the card. Few were even familiar with it. "We don't believe in borrow and spend, but haven't found a way to tax card-users directly" deadpanned Ross Lampert, spokesman for candidate Jeff Latas.

Wagner said he's busy hitting district-level meetings and functions and making the pitch for more participants in Arizona.
"There are more than 800,000 registered child abusers . mental health patients . illegal alients Democrats in Arizona, so the potential for this is huge," he said.

Arizona Republicans have pondered their own affinity card, but got hung up on the bureaucracy of it, said party spokesman Garrick Taylor. "Once you go up to $200 as a contributor, there has to be a filing with the Federal Elections Commission," he said. "We've taken a cursory look at this, but we're just not comfortable with the tracking requirements."
Perhaps one reason for the failure is the millionaires like J. Forbes Kerry let their flunkies handle all the purchasing details, while a Daily Cooz poster living in his mom's basement can't pass the credit check.
Posted by:Jackal

#5  Is it irony that the Dems want to finance their campains through deficit spending?

"Irony meter reading off-scale high, Cap'n!"
Posted by: Mike   2006-08-08 12:53  

#4  Is it irony that the Dems want to finance their campains through deficit spending?
Posted by: BrerRabbit   2006-08-08 08:25  

#3  Maybe they should change it to, "Spend and Tax".
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2006-08-08 08:11  

#2  For some reason the "Tax and Spend" card was not popular in the market.
Posted by: DMFD   2006-08-08 01:50  

#1  Lets give "affinity" cards to all our special fasting moonbats celebrities..

I have it from unimpeachable sources that they spend really BIG BUCKS on Jamba Juice so we're bound to rake in mihulions and mihulions!
Posted by: Al Gore   2006-08-08 00:45  

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