Bernie Sanders’s Early Online Haul: $8.3 Million JUNE 26, 2015

[Divernan]

The day Bernie announced his candidacy, April 30, he raised in excess of $1 million through ActBlue. On May 3, he raised $1.6 million. Except for those 2 days, his supporters donated an average $177,598 to Act Blue for Mr. Sanders each day between May 4 and June 17.
And that $8.3 Million is only the money raised by Act Blue - the article speculates the final number raised by June 30 will be in excess of $9 million.

The Upshot
Campaign Finance
Bernie Sanders’s Early Online Haul: $8.3 Million

JUNE 26, 2015
Derek Willis

The enthusiastic crowds that have been greeting Bernie Sanders on the campaign trail have been matched by online donor excitement. Mr. Sanders, the socialist Vermont senator running for the Democratic presidential nomination, has raised at least $8.3 million online through June 17, according to Federal Election Commission records. His campaign won’t file its initial report until July 15, but filings by ActBlue, the online fund-raising committee that serves as a conduit for Democratic campaigns, show that Mr. Sanders has brought in more money in May and the first half of June than any other Democratic candidate using ActBlue.

It’s likely that Mr. Sanders will report more than $9 million raised as of June 30, the deadline for midyear F.E.C. reports. That amount is larger than any Republican not named Mitt Romney raised in the first half of 2011.

His total is greater than that of Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor who also uses ActBlue and has collected more than $331,000 in his first month of online fund-raising. But Mr. Sanders’s online success is likely to be eclipsed in the first set of filings by Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has a larger network of donors and more time to raise money. (ActBlue is not Mrs. Clinton’s primary online fund-raising vehicle; she has received at least $43,000 through ActBlue users between April 20 and June 17).

Without the support of a “super PAC,” Mr. Sanders’s total may seem small compared with some of the other 2016 candidates, but anywhere close to $10 million would be a very respectable total for a candidate who raised a total of $6.2 million for his 2012 Senate race. One question is whether this initial flood of donations represents the high-water mark or can be sustained.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/27/upshot/bernie-sanderss-early-online-haul-8-3-million.html?mabReward=CTM&action=click&pgtype=Homepage®ion=CColumn&module=Recommendation&src=rechp&WT.nav=RecEngine&abt=0002&abg=0

[arcane1]

1. Not a bad start!!

[Enthusiast]

2. Go, Bernie!!!!

[PatrickforO]

3. If I have anything to do with it, Bernie's donations will be sustained!

But we're going to have to go grass roots in a big way to ensure Bernie's message gets out there, because the mainstream media isn't going to elucidate them clearly. It isn't in their or their corporate owners' financial interest.

Nope. I love this country though - or what it COULD be - and I'm dead tired of corporate propaganda, being nickel and dimed to death in the relentless quest for profit at the expense of all else. I'm tired of having rationed healthcare instead of single payer. I'm tired of my kids' student loan debt. I'm tired of the Republican lies that tell me we need to raise the retirement age and privatize Social Security. I'm also sick of immoral things like the continuation of war, the drone attacks, private for-profit prisons, efforts to voucherize schools, children being taught creationism in the science classroom, big companies and millionaires not paying any US income tax, our crumbling infrastructure, and the stupid, short-sighted denial of climate change just so we can turn one more quarter's quick profit.

The system we have now is UNSUSTAINABLE and I'm dead tired that programs that help me are the ones that are cut, cut, cut. Those firefighters in CA are at higher risk because of Republican cuts. The recent ebola threat happened because of Republican cuts.

C'mon people. This can't go on, and Bernie's the guy that is actually TALKING about things I care about, and more than that is DOING something about these things. He's the real deal.

[Divernan]

4. Outstanding post. Just excellent.

I'm going to be reposting your 2nd & 3rd paragraphs on my FB page and anywhere else - other blogs, letters to the editors, comments on newspaper blogs, anywhere I can between now and primary election day. With your approval, I hope?

And my monthly contributions to Bernie will be "sustained" - I've pledged from this month through November 2016. This country is so fortunate that a man of his calibre has stepped up to the plate.

He's really our last chance to slow down, if not stop completely, the Wall Street/big banking/One percent monster which is sucking the rest of us dry and destroying the quality of life for present and future generations.

I mean, come on, the Clintons have accumulated personal wealth of over $70 million, not to mention complete control of hundreds of millions through their boutique family "charity". Well, bully for them! But it's a zero sum game, folks - they're not printing their millions in the basement. It's a prime example of the transfer of wealth.

For all those resisting throwing every ounce of their support behind Bernie, riddle me this - do you have the tens of millions to set up perpetual trust funds for each of your kids and grandkids? Do you have a private island you can enclose in an environmental bubble as has been done in some uber wealthy communities and private schools in Beijing. And is that private island completely self-sustaining and elevated enough to survive the rising ocean levels?

Here's the future if we don't take major political action:

The scene could be straight from a science-fiction film: a vision of everyday life, but with one jarring difference that makes you realize you’re not on another planet, or in a distant future era.

A sports class is in full swing on the outskirts of Beijing. Herds of children charge after a football on an artificial pitch, criss-crossed with colourful markings and illuminated in high definition by the glare of bright white floodlights. It all seems normal enough – except for the fact that this familiar playground scene is taking place beneath a gigantic inflatable dome.

“It’s a bit of a change having to go through an airlock on the way to class,” says Travis Washko, director of sports at the British School of Beijing. “But the kids love it, and parents can now rest assured their children are playing in a safe environment.”

The reason for the dome becomes apparent when you step outside. A grey blanket hangs in the sky, swamping the surroundings in a de-saturated haze and almost obscuring the buildings across the street. A red flag hangs above the school’s main entrance to warn it’s a no-go day: stay indoors at all costs. The airpocalypse has arrived.

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/dec/16/beijing-airpocalypse-city-almost-uninhabitable-pollution-china

[PatrickforO]

6. Sure. No prob.

I like this one here, too. My wife had a sister and brother who both lived in Beijing with their spouses. Sometimes we'd be skyping and her sister would hold her laptop up so we could see the outside air and it was ALREADY like your scene from a sci-fi film. We've got to do something.

[SusanCalvin]

5. I'm $10 per month of that,

And have been since some months before he announced. Go Bernie!