PRESS RELEASE


Clinton-DNC Joint Fundraising Raises Serious Campaign Finance Concerns



APRIL 18TH, 2016


NEW YORK – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign on Monday questioned “serious apparent violations” of campaign finance laws under a joint fundraising deal between Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

The questionable dealings were detailed in a letter from Brad Deutsch, the attorney for Sanders’ campaign, to U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair of the DNC. The letter questioned whether the Clinton presidential campaign violated legal limits on donations by improperly subsidizing Clinton’s campaign bid by paying Clinton staffers with funds from the joint DNC-Clinton committee.

Unlike Clinton’s presidential campaign committee, Hillary for America, the joint committee may accept large donations of up to $356,100. The first $2,700 of this amount is eligible for transfer to the Clinton campaign, $33,400 can be transferred to the DNC, with any remaining amount, up to $10,000, to each participating state party. According to public disclosure reports, however, the joint Clinton-DNC fund, Hillary Victory Fund (HVF), appears to operate in a way that skirts legal limits on federal campaign donations and primarily benefits the Clinton presidential campaign.

The financial disclosure reports on file with the Federal Election Commission indicate that the joint committee invested millions in low-dollar, online fundraising and advertising that solely benefits the Clinton campaign. The Sanders campaign “is particularly concerned that these extremely large-dollar individual contributions have been used by the Hillary Victory Fund to pay for more than $7.8 million in direct mail efforts and over $8.6 million in online advertising” according to the letter to the DNC. Both outlays benefit the Clinton presidential campaign “by generating low-dollar contributions that flow only to HFA [Hillary for America] rather than to the DNC or any of the participating state party committees.”

The questionable outlays “have grown to staggering magnitudes” and “can no longer be ignored,” Deutsch added.

The expenditures on advertising and fundraising are at best “an impermissible in-kind contribution from the DNC and the participating state party committees” to Clinton’s presidential campaign, the letter said. “At worst, using funds received from large-dollar donors who have already contributed the $2,700 maximum to HFA [Hillary for America] may represent an excessive contribution to HFA from these individuals.”

In addition, the joint committee has paid the Clinton campaign committee $2.6 million ostensibly to “reimburse” the Clinton presidential campaign staff for time spent running the joint committee. The unusual arrangement, Deutsch said, “raises equally serious concerns that joint committee funds, which are meant to be allocated proportionally among the participating committees, are being used to impermissibly subsidize HFA through an over-reimbursement for campaign staffers and resources.”

“While the use of joint fundraising agreements has existed for some time — it is unprecedented for the DNC to allow a joint committee to be exploited to the benefit of one candidate in the midst of a contested nominating contest,” said Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager.

To read the letter, click here.






https://berniesanders.com/press-release/clinton-dnc-joint-fundraising-raises-serious-campaign-finance-concerns/

PRESS RELEASE


New Video Featuring Mark Ruffalo Highlights Sanders’ Brooklyn Roots



APRIL 18TH, 2016






NEW YORK — U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign on Monday released a new online video highlighting the Democratic candidate’s roots and upbringing in Brooklyn. The video features Sanders walking through the Brooklyn College campus where he spent his freshman year, talking with actor and environmentalist Mark Ruffalo.

Over images of Brooklyn from decades ago, Sanders discusses values and experiences gained from growing up in an immigrant community.

“Many of us were the sons or grandchildren of immigrants. And the main shopping area was Kings Highway. And if you went shopping there, you saw would see people who had serial numbers on their arms, which was from Hitler’s concentration camps,” Sanders says.

The densely populated and diverse community Sanders grew up in had a large impact on the way he sees the world today. He explains, “The strength of this country is the fact that we have so much diversity. And I think that we do better when we are a people who appreciate, who love, respect people from all over the world who bring their own values and traditions and become part of the American experience.”

Sanders goes on to discuss the lessons he learned from his parents – his father’s experience as an immigrant and his mother’s desire to provide a better life for her children.

Asked about his role in anti-segregation efforts in Chicago, Sanders tells Ruffalo tells that he became involved out of “a sense of justice.”

The video ends with a discussion of Sanders’ accomplishments as mayor of Burlington, where he put the city on the path to becoming one of the most progressive cities in America, and his time in Congress where he was dubbed the “Amendment King” for his unparalleled record of passing roll call amendments in the House.

“One of the beautiful parts of this campaign,” Sanders concludes, “is your dreams and my dreams, you may have thought there were very few of us. Turns out we are the majority of the people in this country. And people now through this campaign, I think, are sensing that they are not alone. And that’s a big deal.”




https://berniesanders.com/press-release/new-video-featuring-mark-ruffalo-highlights-sanders-brooklyn-roots/