A fact of life in US politics that seems to have gotten worse with every election cycle since 1968.
Candidates’ Receipts and Spending as of 12/31/15 (Official Campaign only) from Politico Tracker.
Hillary Clinton – Raised $115.6 million; Spent $77.6 million
Bernie Sanders – Raised $75 million; Spent $46.7 million
Ben Carson – Raised $53.9 million; Spent $47.5 million
Ted Cruz – Raised $47.6 million; Spent $28.4 million
Jeb Bush – Raised $31.9 million; Spent $24.3 million
Donald Trump – Raised $19.4 million; Spent $12.4 million
Rand Paul – Raised $11.5 million; Spent $11.2 million
Carly Fiorina – Raised $11.5 million; Spent $10.2 million
John Kasich – Raised $7.6 million; Spent $5 million
Santorum – Raised $1.2 million; Spent $1.2 million
It can’t go unmentioned that Jeb Bush’s super PAC has spent $54 million on his behalf. Fiorina was dipping into her super PAC for what is technically campaign functions. Ted Cruz’s super PAC raised something in excess of $40 million but it’s not clear that they spent much in 2015. Hillary’s main super PAC spent $5 million in 2015. At this point in the full operation of Citizen’s United, super PAC money isn’t as efficient as campaign funds. None the less, Jeb? has consumed $78.3 milion and is sitting at less than 5% in the Iowa polls, better in NH but at fifth place he’s far behind.
While others may disagree, these numbers point out the weakness of the Clinton candidacy. She began with near 100% name recognition and high approval ratings and is barely holding a lead in Iowa and trailing by a large margin in NH against a candidate that began with almost no name recognition with the general public and has outspent him by 66% (more if her super PAC spending were included).
Update:
Marco Rubio – Raised $39.5 million; Spent $29.7 million
Martin O’Malley – Raised $4.8 million; Spent $4.6 million
Mike Huckabee – Raised $4 million; Spent $3.8 million
Jim Gilmore – Raised $0.09 million; Spent $0.18 million
Not seeing how Santorum, MOM, Huckabee and Gilmore last beyond Tuesday. Like the great administrator that he is, Chris Christie is the only one that hasn’t filed his FEC report.
Update
Was off by a day wrt when O’Malley would drop out. Did it tonight while larger caucuses were still in progress. But wouldn’t object to him continuing to play a role in the DEM party, unless he wants to get on the neoliberalcon train.
Darn — Huckabee also didn’t wait until tomorrow. [Seriously messing with projection record.]
February 3 (Wednesday) – Rand Paul drops out. His COH at year end was only $1.2 million. (Not as tough or stubborn as the old man?) And apparently he was excluded from the next debate. (Note Christie only had $1.3 million; so, he’s limping into NH and should be out after it.)
Wednesday — double darn. Santorum just had to wait that extra day before dropping out. Maybe it wasn’t his lack of voters or campaign debts that did it but maybe his fee-fees were hurt upon hearing that there would be no “kiddie table” debate on Saturday (apparently didn’t get the hint from his last place finish in Iowa and being in last place in the national and NH polls). (Carly is pissed because it’s sexist to exclude the only female candidate from the next debate just because she didn’t meet the criteria. Truly loathe women who pull this sort of stunt.)
Update #2
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has raised about $3 million in the past 24 hours since his narrow loss to Hillary Clinton in Monday’s leadoff Iowa caucuses.
Sanders’ campaign says the total is the most money it has raised in a single day during the senator’s presidential campaign.
Sanders supporters are demonstrating that they are highly realistic. Fully understanding that Sanders needs a huge amount of money to compete with Goliath, and they are stepping up to the plate. (With a bit of a FU to TPTB including the media that is working overtime to once again shove the left into a coffin.) It’s going to take $25 million in February to get through SuperTuesday in decent shape.
