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A NOTE FROM FRED
Today, Senate Democrats unveiled a campaign finance reform package led by Senators Schumer, Whitehouse, Udall and Merkley. The Senators announced a series of important reforms to help fix our broken campaign finance system that has become a playpen for billionaires. I applaud the national leadership being provided by the Senators. As I said at their press conference today, this effort represents a major development. Senator Schumer made clear that Senate Democrats intend to make this a major issue in the fall elections. This hasn't happened before in Senate races and follows Senator Sanders injecting the issue into the presidential primaries. Senate Majority Leader McConnell has won many fights to obstruct reform, but we have also beaten him and we will beat him again. The reform package does not include an essential reform, public financing of elections, but that is a battle for another day. Beginning in 2017, Democracy 21 and other reform groups will insist that public financing be included in any reform legislation considered by Congress.
Read my statement for today's press conference.
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Trump campaign will meet with top RNC fundraisers today as he "seeks to stabilize his fundraising operation." Gathered at the Four Seasons Hotel in NY will be Trump and major donors to the joint fundraising committee raising money for Trump, the RNC and 11 state parties. One state finance chairmen predicted that many Republican big donors would prefer to give to pro-Trump super PACs to get around the $449,400 contribution limit to the JFC. Read more
Not to be left out, the Clinton campaign signed a new joint fundraising agreement yesterday with the DNC to raise money for the general election. The new deal will allow individuals who have already given the maximum allowed to Clinton's primary campaign a way to donate more money. As well, donors can now give $100,200 to the DNC's convention account and $100,200 to the DNC's headquarters account. Read more
Skeptical Kochs' agree to meet with Trump. USA TODAY reported that top officials within the Koch network plan to meet with Trump aides soon at the request of the Trump campaign. Charles Koch recently said regarding Trump's comments about the federal judge, "It's either racist or it's stereotyping. It's unacceptable and it's taking the country in the wrong direction." Read more
Both parties don't have enough money for their conventions. The Republican host committee is about $7 million short of its fundraising goals and the Democrats are short around $9 - $10 million. Some corporate donors have opted to sit-out of the Republican convention or reduce their giving over the rise of Trump and his controversies. For example, Coca-Cola is giving $75,000 to the RNC for the convention, way down from the $600,000 they gave four years ago. Read more
Trump fundraisers say no chance of hitting $1 billion. Major Republican donors told POLITICO that they expect Trump to "net only a fraction of his original $1 billion goal." Trump recently began distancing himself from that number saying he doesn't need that much to win. Clinton is expected to raise at least $1 billion, as Obama and Romney each did four years ago. Read more
The who's who of the pro-Trump super PACs. The Wall St Journal compiles a list of the major super PACs supporting the billionaire. The largest so far is the Great America PAC which has raised nearly $3 million to date and has support from several high-profile Republican donors. Lurking in the wings is the yet to be formed super PAC supported by Sheldon Adelson. Read more
Clinton campaign gathers top bundlers for fundraising powwow. The campaign held a conference call Wednesday with major bundlers asking them to match what they raised for the primaries by the end of this month in advance of the general election campaign. So far, the campaign has about 1,200 bundlers, each of whom has raised at least $27,000. Many have raised more than $100,000. Read more
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2016 FACT OF THE DAY
$2.2 million - Amount the Sanders' campaign spent on ads in California leading up to Tuesday's primary. The Clinton campaign spent almost $1.4 million. Read more
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CA: Mega-donor Sheldon Adelson gave $100,000 to support Elan Carr running for LA County Supervisor. Adelson's spokesperson says Adelson has a house in Malibu and cares about the "direction of LA County." Carr also has strong ties to Israel. Read more
FL: Restaurant owner in Hialeah is accused of trying to bribe a Miami-Dade County official with an envelope full of cash. The restaurant owner wanted the official to intervene in dealing with "unsympathetic county code enforcement officers." Miami-Dade County is currently considering a ballot initiative that would ban campaign contributions from county vendors and their lobbyists to county commissioners. Read more
CA: The Los Angeles Times looks at how outside money played a large role in shaping the outcome of races on Tuesday's primary. About $25 million was spent by outside groups to influence the outcome of the races for State Legislature. Read more
NY: Governor Cuomo announced a new plan to tighten restrictions on election laws regarding money given to candidates through independent expenditure committees. Watchdogs supported the plan, but said a more pressing concern was the "L.L.C. loophole." Read more
By: Fred Wertheimer (@FredWertheimer) & Kathryn Beard (@KathrynBeard)
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