Dems use Pennsylvania primary to boost coffers back home

With a decisive primary election on tap today in the Keystone State and still no presumptive Democratic nominee, Washington Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz is hoping that state Democrats will rally around the race in order to donate to the Party.

"As you are perhaps painfully aware," Pelz said in an e-mail sent out to supporters, "our Party doesn't have a candidate for President yet, and the other side does."

He points to the fact that in past elections nominees have been on the ground at this stage in the race, building organizations with their own money. Now, with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both still spending money to win the Party's nomination, Pelz says the state Party needs to take care of those basics until the summer.

In addition to reminding Democrats that McCain supports the Iraq war and has been a long opponent of pro-choice issues, Pelz also brings up the Boeing tanker deal.

"We can thank John McCain for taking 9,000 aerospace jobs overseas directly from our state," he said. "As the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services committee John McCain insisted that the Air Force ignore Boeing. Maybe it was because his top campaign advisors lobbied to win a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract for Airbus over Boeing."

Pelz also uses the letter to say that the Democrats will be unveiling a new website in the coming days. More on that as it develops.