New York Magazine: Bernie Sanders Becomes the First Candidate to Reach 1 Million Individual Donation
New York Magazine: Bernie Sanders Becomes the First Candidate to Reach 1 Million Individual Donation
Reaching 1 million donations by the third quarter’s end had been one of the Sanders campaign’s chief goals in recent days.
“This deadline is an opportunity to send a powerful message to the political media and the super PACs attacking us about the strength of our campaign,” the campaign messaged supporters on Facebook. “Let’s make sure they hear us loud and clear.”
What should not be lost amid the din: the fact that last week the average donation to the Sanders campaign was $24.86. The average donation to Hillary Clinton’s rival campaign in the second quarter of 2015 was $145.
Coincidentally, U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups, released a report on Wednesday showing that if the federal government provided a system of public matching funds for small donors — as New York City’s government does for its municipal elections — Sanders’s campaign would have more cash on hand than Clinton’s. As it is, Sanders’s army of politically enthused Redditors is no match for his rival’s big spenders: Clinton raised $45 million in the second quarter, while Sanders took in just $15 million.
This is the report referenced in the article:
Report: Matching Funds Would Give Huge Boost to Sanders, Cruz and Carson
A system of public matching funds for small donors would have transformed the financial terrain of the current presidential race, concludes a new report by U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups.
With such a system, the Bernie Sanders campaign would have more money on hand than Hillary Clinton’s. And the Ted Cruz and Ben Carson campaigns would have far, far more cash than Jeb Bush’s.
According to the study’s author, U.S. PIRG’s Dan Smith, “A small donor matching system would put democracy back in the hands of ordinary Americans.” The evidence suggests that he’s likely right.
