The NY Times has an article on Dean's Quiet Leadership of the DNC. The picture painted is of a nose-to-the-grindstone guy, neither a big strategic thinker like Brown nor a major fund raiser like McAuliffe. Dean is pretty much mum about the primary schedule confusion, he has a single focus on the 50 state program and uses the organizers in Alaska is an example of "chance favoring the prepared mind." He is getting ready to move on when the presidential comes in.
The article ends with some tidbits from this month's FEC filing. The DNC has about $3.25 million in the bank ($2 million in debt), more than a million less than they had last month. That is barely a third of what the committee had going into 2004. The RNC has over $16 million on hand, five times as much as the DNC, and no debt.
UPDATE: DNC's September filing.
This is a bad sign for the Edwards campaign, since they are relying on the DNC to pick up the money slack should Edwards win the nomination. A nominee would improve the committee's fund raising but since the bulk of the DNC's money comes in the mail it will take a few months before the money really flows in, and those are the critical few months before the convention. Edwards would have to cut non-tv spending severely to pay for air cover over those months.
Money is less likely to be an issue for the other candidates. The bigger question is will they consider Dean's 50 state program worth funding. Even under the most optimistic projections the presidential will spend money in at most 22 states, it will be interesting to see if they are willing to permit the DNC to continue spending in 29 non-competitive states, or if they will insist that the DSCC or DCCC take over that part of the 50 state commitment.
UPDATE: DNC's September filing, raised $3.7M, spent $5.1M, $2M debt.