“Why, over her political career, has Wall Street been a major campaign contributor to Hillary Clinton?” the Vermont senator asked. “Maybe they’re dumb, and they don’t know what they’re going to get. But I don’t think so.” “There has never been a candidate — never — who has received huge amounts of money from oil, from coal, from Wall Street, from the military-industrial complex, not one candidate is like, ‘Oh, these campaign contributions have not influenced me, I’m going to be independent,’” Sanders said. “Why do they make millions of dollars of campaign contributions? They expect to get something. Everybody knows that.”
.. Sanders — who has refused donations from large corporations and super PACs — said Clinton’s Wall Street support explains why she’s unwilling to carve up the largest banks or reinstate the limits imposed by Glass-Steagall. “I’m not asking Wall Street for money,” he said. “I WILL break up these banks.” Accusing Sanders of “impugn[ing her] integrity,” Clinton tried to defend herself. “I represented New York, and I represented New York on 9/11,” she said, referring to her time in the U.S. Senate. “When we were attacked, where were we attacked? We were attacked on downtown Manhattan, where Wall Street is.
“I did spend a whole lot of time and effort helping them rebuild,” she explained. “That was good for New York, it was good for the economy, and it was a way to rebuke the terrorists that had attacked our country.”
Ted Cruz Has a Chance to Win. Here’s the Path.
Some of his opportunity is the result of his own strength. He has succeeded in building a robust campaign organization, buoyed by fund-raising tallies of the sort we generally haven’t seen from anti-establishment, conservative candidates. Fund-raising isn’t everything, but it’s a big part of why candidates like Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum have not been serious contenders this time.
A lot of Mr. Cruz’s opening, however, reflects the weakness of his rivals, not his strength. Few would have guessed, for instance, that his solid but hardly astonishing $26 million in official campaign contributions (not counting outside groups) would be more than Jeb Bush’s total. By comparison, George W. Bush raised more than both candidates combined by this point 16 years ago (when a dollar was worth more).
Paul Singer, Influential Billionaire, Throws Support to Marco Rubio for President
Mr. Rubio has aggressively embraced the cause of wealthy pro-Israel donors like Mr. Adelson, whom the senator is said to call frequently, and Mr. Singer, who both serve on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition, an umbrella group for Republican Jewish donors and officials. Mr. Bush has been less attentive, in the view of some of these donors: Last spring, he refused to freeze out his longtime family friend James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state, after Mr. Baker spoke at the conference of a liberal Jewish group.
The lobbying of Mr. Singer intensified in recent weeks as Mr. Bush’s debate stumbles and declining poll numbers drove many donors to consider Mr. Rubio anew. Last week, Mr. Bush’s campaign manager, Danny Diaz, and senior adviser, Sally Bradshaw, flew to New York to make personal appeals on Mr. Bush’s behalf, in the hopes of heading off an endorsement of Mr. Rubio, according to two people close to the former governor’s campaign.
.. Among Mr. Bush’s supporters after the debate, the tone was often one of despair, but it was rarely projected in public comments. Several of them said they took heart that Mr. Bush had acknowledged that he needed to be a more artful political performer in the weeks ahead.
Is There a Silver Lining to Citizens United?
Democratic bills now pending before the House — The Government by the People Act, and the Senate, the Fair Elections Now Act – propose a grant of $6 in public money for every dollar raised from donors of $150 or less.
.. matched-funding operations, including New York City, suggest that such programs have the potential to significantly alter politics and policy in three different ways.
The first is a shift away from candidate dependence on PACs and other special interest sources and an increase in the amount of money politicians raise from their own constituents.
.. The second effect cited by reformers is the increased likelihood of adoption of legislation generally opposed by business interests, including increases in minimum wage and liberalized family leave policies.
.. The third positive consequence cited by advocates of public financing is the election of more working class and moderate income men and women to state legislatures and city councils.
.. I’ve watched as Maine’s Clean Elections system has transformed the state’s Legislature and opened the door for everyday people like plumbers, teachers, carpenters and firefighters to be able to run for office and compete against deep-pocketed or well-connected opponents.
.. A candidate for Congress choosing to accept matching money would first have to raise $50,000 from 1,000 small donors who give $150 or less and who live in the candidate’s state.
.. Persily raised the possibility, however, that legislation boosting the role of small donors could increase polarization because there is evidence that such donors are “more ideologically motivated” than others. To counter the potential of increased polarization, Persily said that public funding could be expanded to “cut very large checks to the political parties to spend as they wish,” since the parties tend to be moderating forces.
.. For reformers to have a chance requires post-2020 congressional redistricting with Democrats in control in such key states as Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina, allowing the party to take control of the House in 2022.
.. The Roberts court has deregulated campaign finance on the premise that the only legitimate grounds for restricting money in politics is to prevent explicit corruption.
.. a Supreme Court “that will accept political equality as a compelling interest that justifies reasonable campaign regulations