posted March 07, 2006 10:17 PM            

Democratic congressional leaders reportedly gave an earful to Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean in a private meeting last month. Their problem: Dean’s free-spending ways.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., complained to the 2004 presidential candidate that his spending priorities at the DNC were misplaced.

Dean has been spending large amounts on organizing state parties in strong Republican states like Mississippi rather than targeting states with close congressional races in the mid-term elections.

Several anonymous sources told The Washington Post that neither side gave in. Dean claimed his strategy was necessary for the long-term health of the party. It is the same argument he made when running for the DNC chairmanship.

But Reid and Pelosi argued that long-term opportunities would be lost if they squandered a rare chance to recapture the Congress this fall. They are pushing for a more focused approach. "Nobody’s suggesting they do 16 states,” one congressional Democrat told the Post, "but not all states are equal.”

Top-level Democrats are increasingly worried about a growing financial advantage held by the Republican National Committee over the DNC. In the most recent FEC filing, the RNC had raised $103 million and retained $34 million cash-on-hand. The DNC, however, had only raised $50.1 million and retained $5.8 million cash-on-hand.