Sanders falls short on fundraising but spends big in second quarter

[George II]

Sen. Bernie Sanders, lagging behind other top tier candidates in fundraising efforts, went on a shopping spree during the second quarter, spending millions more than the next closest Democrat.

Sanders raised $18 million from individual contributions from April 1 to June 30, a number that leaves him fourth behind Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s $19.2 million, former Vice President Joe Biden’s $22 million, and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s leading $24.9 million haul for the quarter.

In an email to supporters Tuesday afternoon, Faiz Shakir, Sanders’ campaign manager, said though he was “proud” of the number of contributions Sanders received, they were clearly outraised by their competitors.

“The truth is, we were out-raised this time. Not by much. But enough that we are going to need a lot more donations,” Shakir wrote.

(snip...)

Sanders’ spending included $131,654 on “office supplies” from Amazon — the online retail giant that he has railed against for its working conditions — $262,000 for access to voter information in early primary states and hundreds of thousands of dollars for online advertising and research.

https://vtdigger.org/2019/07/16/sanders-falls-short-on-fundraising-but-spends-big-in-second-quarter/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=SocialWarfare

[HerbChestnut]

1. Thanks, George!

Bernie's campaign has raised the most money out of any campaign so far in the race and currently has the most cash on hand.

Edit: Source - http://www.opensecrets.org/2020-presidential-race

[Cha]

2. oh god. So much CASH.. his workers need

a raise!!!!!!

[emmaverybo]

26. Ha ha! True. Share, Bernie. nt

[RobertDevereaux]

3. Also from this article...

"The campaign reported that 99% of its fundraising came from pledges at or less than $100, with an average donation of $19 from nearly 1 million individual supporters."

[George II]

4. 77% of his contributions are "unitemized". Do we know where they came from? No.

[HerbChestnut]

5. A bit conspiratorial, don't you think?

[George II]

6. Nope. All I know is that there's $27.8 million that we know nothing about with respect....

....to where it came from. Do you know?

[brooklynite]

7. This refers to contributions less than $50...Likely cash collected at a campaign event.

[George II]

8. When I was a treasurer, certainly not the magnitude of this, I still kept track of where....

....every penny came from. In my case, in all the campaigns I worked for (six or seven candidates, about the same number of PACs) only about 20% were under $100, not 77%.

For example, let's say someone gives $50, it's not itemized. Then if the same person months later gave another $50 (not sure what the level is for Federal campaigns), then that person gave $100 in aggregate. Then BOTH contributions have to be itemized.

From our state guidelines (again, Federal might be different):

All monetary contributions in excess of $50 in the aggregate must be itemized in Section B. Moreover, when monetary contributions exceed $50 from an individual who was previously reported as a small contributor in Section A, the contributor must be itemized in Section B on the next scheduled statement.

[murielm99]

9. I worked as a treasurer, too, George.

It was for a central committee, not for a campaign. When my son ran, he did his own reporting.

We had to itemize all contributions. If we did not do it properly, our financial reports, which always had a deadline, would not be accepted. They were sent back to us. We were fined if we did not meet deadlines.

We were answerable to the state board of elections, not the FEC. I was told by chair people in larger counties that the FEC was much more strict than our state board of elections. Laws were set up that way because of the things Nixon had done.

I realize this is anecdotal. But I am fairly sure that there are many Democrats on this board who have at least a little bit of experience at holding office at a local level or working on campaigns. I would like to hear from some of them. There are talented people here.

[George II]

10. I was treasurer for five mayoral campaigns (not a large town), our "central committee"....

....for the town Democrats for eight years, and then two PACs using the excess from the mayoral campaigns. These were all under state law, not federal. If we were late, there was a $100 fine that had to be paid by the treasurer, not the committee. There was no grace period.

I'm surprised your son could do his own reporting. In our state a candidate can't be his/her own treasurer. When I was treasurer of our committee, I ran for office four times, and the local committee financed the campaigns. So, each time on the night that I received the nomination I had to resign as treasurer. Then at 8 PM on election night I was named treasurer again, whether I won or not.

[murielm99]

20. I am pretty sure my son

did not raise a lot of money. He had to report his candidacy, but he raised an amount that was under the threshold for reporting. He was running for a city council seat. He lost by a very small number of votes. Even the mayor, who was a Republican, liked him a lot. He was later appointed to the planning commission, where he served for several years.

[Blue_true]

18. If you raised $5,000 in small donations at a campaign event, how would you record those? nt

[George II]

19. I still kept track of the names and addresses of everyone who contributed.

[Blue_true]

21. So basically none of the donations would be uncategorized.

Maybe the problem is inexperience on the field people's part, but Bernie had this exact same problem in 2016.

[George II]

23. One would think that a campaign that will wind up receiving $300M or more.....

....would not be "inexperienced".

[murielm99]

11. That cash has to be reported.

I can remember reporting on things like cash raised from a 50/50 drawing. We had to report things like: $126.00 received from 50/50 drawing, $126.00 paid out to winner Joe Smith.

I can't believe a federal campaign can get away with this.

[brooklynite]

12. It WAS reported; it just wasn't itemized by donor.

[murielm99]

13. That much,

collected at campaign events? And the FEC is more strict than the state(s)' reporting requirements?

To me, something does not add up.

[George II]

15. It was reported as one lump sum - part of "Unitemized individual contributions" of $27,833,640.

[George II]

24. Years ago we had one of those drawings. What I did (ooops) was get the winner of the drawing....

.....to report the 50% he didn't win as a contribution from him to our committee.

[Tarheel_Dem]

14. "Amazon -- the online retail giant that he has railed against for its working conditions".

Again, "do as I say, not as I do". Rachel always says, with regard to the Trump administration, "watch what they do, not what they say". I guess that applies to others as well.

[Jose Garcia]

16. Just imagine how much he would be spending if his employees were paid $15/hr

[Vegas Roller]

17. It is akin to religion

As long as a few devotees are tithing, they keep building new churches .... even when interest in religion is long gone on the part of the majority.

[NYMinute]

22. Amazon?

Why doesn't he support the local mom-n-pop office supply stores instead of trying to save a few bucks? It is bourgeoisie masquerading as a socialist.

What about the "little man" who will be joining the revolution destitute and hungry while Bezos flies on a personal jet?

[betsuni]

25. K&R