Clinton fundraising leaves little for state parties
The Democratic front-runner says she's raising big checks to help state committees, but they've gotten to keep only 1 percent of the $60 million raised.
In the days before Hillary Clinton launched an unprecedented big-money fundraising vehicle with state parties last summer, she vowed “to rebuild our party from the ground up,” proclaiming “when our state parties are strong, we win. That’s what will happen."
But less than 1 percent of the $61 million raised by that effort has stayed in the state parties’ coffers, according to a POLITICO analysis of the latest Federal Election Commission filings.
The venture, the Hillary Victory Fund, is a so-called joint fundraising committee comprised of Clinton’s presidential campaign, the Democratic National Committee and 32 state party committees. The set-up allows Clinton to solicit checks of $350,000 or more from her super-rich supporters at extravagant fundraisers including a dinner at George Clooney’s house and at a concert at Radio City Music Hall featuring Katy Perry and Elton John.
The victory fund has transferred $3.8 million to the state parties, but almost all of that cash ($3.3 million, or 88 percent) was quickly transferred to the DNC, usually within a day or two, by the Clinton staffer who controls the committee, POLITICO’s analysis of the FEC records found.
By contrast, the victory fund has transferred $15.4 million to Clinton’s campaign and $5.7 million to the DNC, which will work closely with Clinton’s campaign if and when she becomes the party’s nominee. And most of the $23.3 million spent directly by the victory fund has gone towards expenses that appear to have directly benefited Clinton’s campaign, including $2.8 million for “salary and overhead” and $8.6 million for web advertising that mostly looks indistinguishable from Clinton campaign ads and that has helped Clinton build a network of small donors who will be critical in a general election expected to cost each side well in excess of $1 billion.

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Using an IPhone. This sucks
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
That's par for the course for Clinton
The rules don't apply to her, not now, not ever.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
I'm shocked I tell you! Shocked!
Who would've thought that this sort of financial misdirection would happen under the watch of someone someone so honest and trustworthy?
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
What people aren't getting
What people aren't getting is that centrists like Obama and Clinton like the republicans to win downballot. It gives them an excuse for their betrayals of progressives. When the Congress was controlled by democrats and they still failed to deliver, it made them look bad. It also gives them an excuse to get things done, with austerity budgets, cuts to social programs, and job destroying free trade agreements. That is why punishments of parties should happen in Presidential elections, not midterms. I would rather lose the Presidency than lose congress.
Apolitical friend of mine nailed it
He said the clintons treat elective office as a loss leader for later fundraising/speech giving. He didn't even know much about Bernie (that was part of why we were talking) so it's not like he was especially partisan...
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg