Bernie Sanders
Related: About this forumSmall Gifts to Bernie Sanders Challenge Hillary Clinton Fund-Raising Model
by JASON HOROWITZ and AMY CHOZICK
In the back of a Concord, N.H., school gymnasium, as Bernie Sanders gave a triumphant speech after winning the New Hampshire Democratic primary, 24-year-old Kenneth Pennington stood staring at his smartphone, watching the numbers climb. Mr. Pennington, the campaigns digital director, saw thousands of people cramming onto the Sanders website at once, frantically trying to donate to his campaign. In one minute alone, 2,689 people had donated an average of $34.
It was, obviously, a big day, said Mr. Pennington, who found himself jumping up and down as the contributions rolled in.
Mr. Sanders has no official finance director, but with the help of people like Mr. Pennington, who built his first website at age 12, he has created a fund-raising juggernaut that has fueled his unexpectedly competitive race for president. The network his team built now threatens the once-daunting Clinton fund-raising model, which the family perfected over years of Beverly Hills dinners, Hamptons summer parties, and rewards for donors like nights in the Lincoln Bedroom.
Mr. Sanders, the Vermont senator, has raised some $96 million to Hillary Clintons $127 million, but he is gaining ground after raising $5 million more than she did last month. His operation is also highly efficient Mr. Sanders simply asks his small donors to give online, and they do, while Mrs. Clinton has left the campaign trail repeatedly to fly to other cities for receptions with bigger contributors.
In the 48 hours after his 22-point victory in New Hampshire, for example, the senators campaign raised $8 million online.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/us/politics/small-gifts-to-bernie-sanders-challenge-hillary-clinton-fund-raising-model.html?ref=politics&_r=1
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)n2doc
(47,953 posts)99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)when we were on the cusp of Public Financing being fully embraced, where people could
check a box on their Tax Return, indicating they wanted to dedicate X% to a certain
candidate.
Did these ideas get buried in the "Reagan Revolution"? They somehow got vaporized and
disappeared from the public discussion.
EmperorHasNoClothes
(4,797 posts)In the 1992 election hearing that the candidates were raising tens of millions of dollars and thinking to myself how obscene that was.
roguevalley
(40,656 posts)tk2kewl
(18,133 posts)Trample on one of the few sane policies governing Democratic Party donations - the prohibition of taking money from the very same lobbyists that will try to garner influence from HRC should she find her way into the Oval Office.