It's the Money, Stupid

Stories

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August 2008
- Lobbying Law Won't Crimp Convention Parties
  
  Wall Street Journal | Aug 16, 08 7:30 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Tough new rules aimed at weakening the influence of lobbyists won't keep Democrats and Republicans away from some of the most lavish convention parties ever seen, funded by those seeking to influence legislation, the Wall Street Journal reports. Dozens of loopholes allow lawmakers to skirt the legislation by accepting gifts from lobbyists and attending their glitzy, star-studded bashes. More »
- Exec: I Was Fired for Not Donating to Mitt
  
  Wall Street Journal | Aug 7, 08 1:56 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - An ex-executive with a Chicago-based consulting group has filed an employment bias complaint, alleging that he was fired in part for his refusal to donate to Mitt Romney’s campaign, the Wall Street Journal reports. The complaint offers a rare glimpse into the machinery of corporate donations. In emails seen by the Journal , Huron Group’s CEO asks employees to back the Republican. “This is just business and the way business works,” he writes. More »
- Obama Network of Big Donors Rivals Bush's
  
  New York Times | Aug 6, 08 11:55 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Barack Obama likes to point to the avalanche of small-money donations that account for a full half of his record $340 million haul. But he has also been carefully cultivating a network of big-money bundlers since his earliest days in the Senate, the New York Times reports. As a result, Obama’s fleet of boosters are on pace to rival even George W. Bush’s vaunted “rangers” and “pioneers.” More »
July 2008
- Obama Raises $25M in a Single Day
  
  Politico | Jul 21, 08 11:47 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Barack Obama brought in more donations on the last day of June than John McCain did in the entire month, Politico reports. The unprecedented $25 million day accounted for nearly half of Obama’s $54 million total. It was one of five days on which the campaign brought in more than $1 million; John McCain had no million-dollar days en route to raising $22 million in June. More »
- Obama Rakes in $52M in June
  
  Reuters | Jul 17, 08 8:31 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Barack Obama is back up in the fundraising stratosphere, pulling in $52 million in June, the campaign said today. The total is just shy of the record $55 million he drew in February, and it more than laps John McCain’s $22 million take in June. The total lays to rest speculation that Obama was in for another down month after raising “only” $30 million in April and $21.9 million in May. More »
- Hedge Funds Turn Bullish on Lobbying
  
  Politico | Jul 8, 08 4:40 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The hedge-fund industry is stepping up its lobbying efforts, Politico reports, having belatedly realized how tempting a target it presents to cash-strapped politicians. Facing attacks from both sides of the aisle for their tax-free offshore accounts and lightly taxed incomes, hedge funds upped lobbying spending to $1.9 million last year, and have donated $10.6 million to campaigns this election cycle. More »
- McCain Backers Finding Ways Around Law He Sponsored
  
  Wall Street Journal | Jul 3, 08 2:30 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Desperate to keep up with Barack Obama's powerful fundraising apparatus, John McCain’s allies have found ways of skirting the very campaign finance laws the Arizona senator helped write, the Wall Street Journal reports. Republican strategists are pushing donations toward a fund used to elect governors—not subject to dollar limits—on the theory that state-level pushes will boost the top of the ticket. More »
- Rising New Money Class Powers Obama
  
  New York Times | Jul 1, 08 8:56 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Barack Obama likes to tout his small-donor network, as though a wave of inspired regular folk came out of the woodwork just for him. In reality, Obama is mining a money class that Democrats have been cultivating for years, writes David Brooks in the New York Times —"the rising class of information age analysts." More »
June 2008
- Obama Reintroduces Himself
  
  Washington Post | Jun 23, 08 10:00 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Barack Obama is going back to basics as he launches his general election campaign, the Washington Post reports. The Democrat's first ad is a getting-to-know-you effort, recounting his biography and his values. “You can't presume that everybody was paying attention during the primary season,” explains one adviser—or, between the lines, that many Americans might still believe Internet-borne rumors. More »
- Forget the Small-Donor Myth: Big Money Still Rules
  
  Washington Post | Jun 20, 08 12:05 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Barack Obama often talks about how much money he’s raised from small donors, even describing it as “a parallel public financing system.” But while Obama has indeed raised record sums from little guys, big donors have kept pace , writes Jay Mandle of the Washington Post, predicting that when the dust settles, their 2008 role will have increased, rather than decreased. Through March, he notes, Obama's small-donor percentage was actually smaller than John Kerry's. More »
- Obama's a Pragmatist, Not a Reformer
  
  Politico | Jun 20, 08 11:06 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Barack Obama’s decision to opt out of the public financing system shouldn’t come as a surprise, writes Politico’s Ben Smith. Obama has been inching away from the money for a long time now, proving once again that he’s not a traditional reformer—he’s a pragmatist. Obama comes from a community organizing tradition that focuses on results, not methods. More »
- Campaign Debt? What Campaign Debt?
  
  Politico | Jun 12, 08 9:58 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Some clever and mostly legal accounting tricks could minimize Clinton's big campaign debt and leave her with cash on hand for king-making or another future campaign, reports Politico. Hillary could reclassify her own loans to the campaign as contributions, ask donors to redirect their cash to her Senate campaign, and take it slow on repaying understanding debtors. More »
- Democrats Balk at Obama's Donation Ban
  
  Politico | Jun 10, 08 3:27 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Barack Obama won't accept contributions from lobbyists and PACs, but the rest of his party is unlikely to follow suit, reports Politico. Democratic lobbyists and fundraisers are outraged that the donations they secure are automatically considered suspect, while Senate and House candidates simply need the cash to compete. "You really have to look under every rock," a House aide says of fundraising. More »
- Hillary's Next Challenge: Paying Bills
  
  New York Times | Jun 10, 08 7:35 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Hillary Clinton's White House bid made history—by ending with what is believed to be the largest presidential campaign debt ever. The New York senator had approximately $9.5 million in unpaid bills at the end of April, not to mention $11.4 of her own money that she lent the campaign. The Clinton campaign is still adding up the final tally, but her options for retiring her debt are limited. More »
- Obama Wallet Strikes Fear in GOP Hearts
  
  Politico | Jun 5, 08 1:56 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Republicans not used to worrying about money are sweating pennies, given John McCain's relatively inept fundraising in the face of an unprecedented Democratic war chest. Barack Obama, by conservative estimates, will have $300 million to McCain’s federal cap of $85 million for the general-election campaign, Politico reports—and with that kind of money, Obama could force McCain to play defense in traditionally red states. More »
- Obama Willing to Help Bail Clinton Out of $20M Debt
  
  Bloomberg | Jun 5, 08 12:42 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Barack Obama might ask his supporters to help Hillary Clinton pay off her campaign debt, Bloomberg reports. Clinton has accrued more than $20 million, $11.4 million of which she personally contributed. Under a campaign-finance law (co-sponsored by John McCain) she has until August's Democratic convention to raise money to settle the debt, after which she can only recoup $250,000. More »
- Obama Moves to Clean Up DNC Money Machine
  
  Politico | Jun 5, 08 12:04 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Barack Obama moved today to make his campaign more transparent, in keeping with his theme of bringing change to Washington. Obama will open all his fundraisers to the press, Politico reports. He’s also cleaning up his party’s fundraising efforts; starting today, the Democratic National Committee, like Obama’s campaign, won’t accept money from lobbyists or political action committees. More »
- With Airwaves to Himself, McCain Targets Ohio
  
  Wall Street Journal | Jun 2, 08 7:39 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Right now, John McCain has America’s commercial breaks all to himself, and he’s using them, reports the Wall Street Journal. McCain spent $170,000 Wednesday, which puts him on pace for $1.2 million per week, after spending $1.5 million over the past two months. Most of that money is flowing into Ohio, and to a lesser extent other battleground states, and hammering an uncharacteristic issue: the economy. More »
May 2008
- Democrats Can't Find Cash for Convention
  
  New York Times | May 28, 08 10:41 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Democrats aren’t just wringing their hands over who they’ll nominate at their national convention—they’re also wondering who's going to pick up the tab. The Denver host committee has raised just $25 million of the $40.6 million it needs by June 16, the New York Times reports, which has Dems scrambling to find donors—or scale back plans. More »
- Spreadsheets Can't Handle Democrats' Haul
  
  Politico | May 26, 08 11:16 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The Democratic presidential candidates have raised so much money that the FEC can’t handle the data, Politico reports. Barack Obama’s January report was so big that industry standard spreadsheet programs like Microsoft Excel 2003 couldn’t handle it. By March, Hillary Clinton had also broken the Excel barrier—a mere 65,536 rows and 256 columns. More »