Bernie Sanders raises more cash than Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Hillary Clinton still silent
While Hillary Clinton is still silent on her fundraising, Bernie Sanders has made a splash, raising more in the first 24 hours that his GOP rivals Rand Paul, Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio.
While Ted Cruz and Rand Paul each raised about $1million while Marco Rubio raised more, about $1.25million during their first 24 hours, Sanders avoided the Super PACs, big money from corporations and billionaires and raised over $1.5 million from over 35,000 individual donations averaging $43.54.
Self-proclaimed socialist Sanders, says he will run a campaign “…on issues and offer recognizable solutions the voter can understand, and not run a smear campaign against the other candidates.”
“We’re in this race to win. I’ve asked people to understand my history. You are looking at a guy, undisputedly, who has the most unusual political history of anybody in the United States Congress. It’s just that I’m the longest serving Independent in Congress… In my last election I got 71% of the vote… The point is if you raise the issues that are in the hearts and minds of the American people, if you put together a movement that says ‘we have got to stand together and say that this capitol, this beautiful capitol, our country belongs to all of us–and notthe billionaire class. That is raising an issue. That is winning elections.”
Hillary Clinton is already getting slack from critics that her PAC money is undercutting her message on campaign finance reform.
“The candidate will be pushing the boundaries of campaign finance law further than any Democratic presidential contender ever has by directly asking donors to give to a friendly “super PAC” that can raise unlimited amounts of campaign cash from donors, according to a person familiar with her plans. That effort started in California on Wednesday, when Clinton met in San Francisco with potential donors of the organization, Priorities USA Action. She had another meeting in Los Angeles on Thursday,” writes the LA Times.
“Just three weeks ago, Hillary Clinton decried unaccountable money in politics and even called for amending the Constitution to ban it,” said Jeff Bechdel, communications director for America Rising, a conservative research group. “Today, she announced she’s going to personally court donors and raise money for her own super PAC. … Clinton’s hypocrisy knows no bounds.”
The LA Times continued, with details on her program:
Clinton’s campaign calls its bundlers “Hillstarters,” and those designated as such get perks that include invites to receptions with the candidate. Clinton is making it much easier to get in this circle of fundraisers than she did eight years ago, when supporters had to raise $100,000. Now, they need only to generate $27,000 for the campaign.