Remember when Hillary people informed us that she was doing the state parties a big favor by creating her Hillary Victory Fund, whereby money would be shared by her campaign, the DNC and the local parties, money they wouldn’t ever have been able to obtain without access to her wealthy donor base? Well, despite charges by some that it was a big money laundering scheme to primarily benefit the Clinton campaign, many Democrats still believed that she was the candidate doing the most for the party overall.
But now, Politico has issued its second report on the Hillary Victory Fund, and what their report claims doesn’t sound like much of a deal for the local parties. It sounds like the local parties’ were fleeced to be exact, as her “rebuild the party” plan has returned less than one percent (1%) of the monies raised to local state Democratic parties, while holding on to the rest – you know, 99 percent of $61 Million raised.
[L]ess 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 setup 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 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 toward 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.
So Hillary got 15.4 Million directly, plus most of another $23 Million that directly benefited the Clinton campaign and is being spent now in the primary on her behalf rather than being saved to help state parties in the general election. Meanwhile, the DNC holds onto another $8 Million, which if the recent past is prologue will go to the presidential nominee for the general election.
So far all of the 32 State Democratic parties who signed up for this deal have received a sum total of around $500 Thousand buckaroos, which averages out to $15,625 per state. So much for the rebuild.
“It’s a one-sided benefit,” said an official with one participating state party. The official, like those with several other state parties, declined to talk about the arrangement on the record for fear of drawing the ire of the DNC and the Clinton campaign.
In fact, the DNC, which has pushed back aggressively on charges that it is boosting Clinton at the expense of other Democrats, has advised state party officials on how to answer media inquiries about the arrangement, multiple sources familiar with the interactions told POLITICO.
“The DNC has given us some guidance on what they’re saying, but it’s not clear what we should be saying,” said the official. “I don’t think anyone wants to get crosswise with the national party because we do need their resources. But everyone who entered into these agreements was doing it because they were asked to, not because there are immediately clear benefits.”
Better luck in four years folks. Assuming the local branches of the Democratic Party still exist in any real sense in many states after another four years of leadership like we’ve seen over the last 8 years. Too bad Howard Dean and his 50 state strategy was kicked to the curb for the many splendid benefits provided under the leadership of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, instead.
