2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: The Hillary corruption straw man. [View all]CajunBlazer
(5,648 posts)Thus fare Sanders has raised %182,923,991 and Hillary has raised $182,242,497 so they have raised almost exactly the same money. The Sanders campaign has spent 91% of the money available while the Clinton campaign has spent 84% of their available cash, so it is Sanders not Hillary which is cash strapped.
While several of Bernie's biggest donors exceeded their $2,500 limited long ago, his donations averaged only $27 which means that most of his donation were quite small. That indicates the most of those donating can't afford to give much and if they continue to give they are going to reach their limits.
The problem is that the $183 K which Sanders raised is but a drop in the bucket compared to what he would need in the general election. In 2012, $2 Billion dollars was spent on the Presidential election and the majority was spent during the general election and this year even more money is likely to be spent. That's when TV commercial have to run nationwide, not just one state at a time. Where is Sanders going to raise. The Koch brothers and friends alone are planning to spend almost $1 Billion dollars backing Republican candidates in 2016 through their PAC. How could Sanders counter all all of that money without a pack of his own?
However, that isn't all of Hillary's fund raising; there is also the Hillary Victory fund:
CNN: $182 million: Bernie Sanders equals Hillary Clinton's campaign fundraising
Clinton also raises money for the "Hillary Victory Fund," a federal joint fundraising committee operated between the Clinton campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and a number of state parties. The fund has raised $60 million through the end of March and has transferred $12.7 million to the Clinton campaign. Any funds raised by a joint fundraising committee are divided among the sponsoring campaigns and parties using a predetermined allocation formula.
Sanders has his own joint fundraising committee with the DNC, the "Bernie Victory Fund," but as of March that account remained essentially inactive.
And Hillary also has her Super PAC to which rich Democratic donors can contributed an unlimited amount of money.
Clinton also has the support of outside groups known as "Super PACs," which can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money in support or opposition to a candidate but may not coordinate directly with a campaign. The primary Super PAC supporting Clinton is Priorities USA, which has raised more than $55 million in 2015 and 2016.
So Bernie Sanders unilaterally disarmed. But not to worry, he only has to fund his campaign through the convention because after that he's done.