Politicians and their election campaigns generally maintain a patina of surging optimism even in the face of impending and evident doom.

The one exception is in fundraising. When a lawmaker or presidential candidate wants donors to dig into their pockets and part with cash, the reverse is often true. The campaign takes on the urgent tenor of someone on the brink of oblivion.

When actor James Denton from the TV show “Desperate Housewives” made a fundraising video for former Sen. John Edwards’s (D-N.C.) presidential campaign, for example, he said, “If you’re as desperate as I am for change, please join us today … Make a donation, anything you can afford — help keep John in this fight.”

The tone and text are redolent of utter neediness.

The same was true this week when House Republican leaders called on their rank and file to contribute money to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) or face life in the minority for many election cycles.

Their neediness is not merely the standard trope of election fundraising. The GOP is in dire financial straits vis-à-vis its Democratic opponents, who enjoy a massive money advantage.

At the end of September, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had $28.3 million on hand and had collected $13.4 million from the House caucus. The NRCC, by contrast, has received just $6.1 million from House GOP transfers and is $3.5 million in debt.

Donors want to back winners, and few believe the GOP is going to win the match-up in November next year.

In an interview with The Hill earlier this year, NRCC Chairman Tom Cole (Okla.) called K Street donations “winner’s money.”

That, indeed, it is.

Lobbyists don’t give out of the kindness of their hearts, or at least not as often as they give to get something in return. What they get is not, except in egregious cases, a direct quid pro quo, a vote or earmark for cash.

No, what the donor gets is a measure of confidence that the guy in power will remember him without animosity, indeed, perhaps, with gratitude.

 A year after the last elections and a year before the next ones, congressional Republicans are in the tough position of having no ready answer to two questions: What have you done for me lately? and What will you be able to do for me in the 111th Congress?