October 2, 2015

Email from Bernie

From: Bernie Sanders <info@BernieSanders.com>
To: TBF
Subject: Thank you
Date: Oct 2, 2015 9:04 AM
Bernie Sanders for President

TBF -

Thank you VERY much for your financial support for our campaign.

When we talk about a "political revolution," we are not just talking about tinkering around the edges of American society. We are talking about transforming our country in many respects -- the economy, health care, education, the environment, criminal justice, immigration and many other areas.

But what we are also talking about is transforming our corrupt campaign finance system -- a system which, as a result of the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, now allows millionaires and billionaires to buy elections and undermine the very foundations of American democracy.

What we have done together so far in this campaign is not only extraordinary and unprecedented, it is transforming American politics. What we have shown is that we can raise over $40 million dollars without having a Super PAC. What we have shown is that we can raise an amount of money which makes us financially competitive by securing 1.3 million contributions from, unbelievably, 650,000 Americans. What we have shown is that we can run a successful campaign without having to depend upon donations from the wealthy and the powerful, and that we can do it with an average campaign contribution of only $30.

Our political system is corrupt. Big Money controls much of what happens.

Together, you and I are changing that.

Thank you again for your support.

Best,

Bernie

October 1, 2015

Bernie Sanders’s Campaign, Hitting Fund-Raising Milestone, Broadens Focus

Front page of the NY Times!!

“Bernie has done very, very well without having to spend much money at all, relative to Hillary,” said David Axelrod, a Democratic strategist who was a top adviser on Mr. Obama’s campaigns. “His campaign recognizes, rightly, that you have to navigate through the early contests and then, to win on Super Tuesday, you have to spend a boatload. They’ve now proven they’re capable of doing that.”

By PATRICK HEALYOCT. 1, 2015

BURLINGTON, Vt. — Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont still flies coach to his campaign events, sometimes taking the middle seat. He has not run any commercials, instead saving his money for a media blitz this winter in Iowa, New Hampshire and the Super Tuesday states. His aides are only now preparing to conduct polls, to the consternation of some Sanders advisers who have hungered for data on his political challenges, like courting black and Hispanic voters.

And rather than benefit from million-dollar contributions through a “super PAC,” Mr. Sanders — who has called such fund-raising groups corrupt — has amassed a million online donations over the past five months, faster than Barack Obama did in his first, digitally groundbreaking, campaign for president.

Mr. Sanders reached a turning point on Wednesday night, when his campaign said that it had raised about $26 million since July — more than Mr. Obama took in for the comparable period in 2007 — and that it had saved enough since the spring to have more than $26 million in cash.

Mr. Sanders was initially dismissed by political insiders as a fringe candidate running only to push Hillary Rodham Clinton to the left. But he has now demonstrated that he has the resources and the supporters, whom he has only begun to tap financially, to compete for the Democratic presidential nomination ...

More here: http://www.nytimes.com/

Adding exact link in case they move it off the front page: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/02/us/politics/bernie-sanders-election-campaign.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news