Clinton’s Cash Crunch Leads Campaign to “Violate the Spirit of Campaign Finance Reform”
(Excuse me for being late to this party; I was on a plane all day.)
It seems that the Clinton campaign has hit the cash skids. Top advisers are skipping a month’s pay, and she and Bill have tapped into their their personal post-presidential kitty for an initial loan of $5 million. Already, folks are speculating that loan could balloon much higher.
Obama’s campaign has wasted no time in using this Romneyesque move as a fundraising tool. And an effective one to boot. The campaign sent out an email seeking to raise $5 million today. They’re already at $5.2 million. Scratch that, since I started writing this post they’re already up to $5.5 million.
The campaign may just have hit that self-sustaining sweetspot so mythologized by Joe Trippi, wherein a movement campaign pulls in more money every day by dint of little more than momentum. Certainly, it doesn’t hurt that MoveOn is now raising funds for Obama too.
Bonus fun from via Ben Smith at Politico: In Iowa earlier this season, Bill Clinton said such self-financing by candidates “would clearly violate the spirit of campaign finance reform.”
Hillary is now appealing to donors to help her raise $3 million in three days. Gee, with that kind of cash, she could almost afford her pricey pollster pal Mark Penn.