Tag Archives: fundraising

Show Them the Money

From “The GOP ‘civil war’ is going to make both sides rich,”  Alex Pareene, Salon:

“The conservative movement is a massive and elaborate moneymaking venture.  Numerous nonprofits exist almost solely to raise money, which they spend on their own salaries and, obviously, more fundraising.  A conservative Civil War is great for business.  Karl Rove throwing money at ‘electable’ Republicans is a wonderful opportunity for people to raise money for groups that promise to elect crazies.  More primary campaigns means more jobs for consultants.  More third party groups fighting for the soul of the party means more desperate pitches to gullible millionaires and billionaires.  Plus more crappy books sold in bulk to conservative book clubs!

“‘Donate to us or Karl Rove will defeat true conservatives’ is a great pitch.  Maybe even better than ‘donate to us if you actually want Republicans to win elections.’  While only an idiot would send any money to FreedomWorks, an organization that currently pays Dick Armey a six-figure salary to not work there, the last cycle showed how many well-heeled idiots are out there asking to be fleeced.

“The entire conservative movement these days seems like a successful experiment in getting rich people (and lots and lots of non-rich people, whose donations are less coveted but accepted nonetheless) to pay an ever-growing number of pundits, think tank ‘fellows’ and ‘scholars,’ failed campaign hacks and people like Ginni Thomas who seem to serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever.  Like Paul Harvey, the super PAC’s and nonprofits know it doesn’t matter if your products — in this case, ideas and candidates and electoral strategies — are worthless, as long as you push the crap convincingly.  Whether Rove succeeds or fails in helping the Republican Party, his campaign will be great for the movement.”  Italics in original.

 

Obama and Mitt Prove Hemingway Was Right

When F. Scott Fitzgerald told Ernest Hemingway, “The rich are different from you and me,” Hemingway is said to have replied, “Yes, they have more money.”

June’s fundraising numbers show the party of the rich does indeed have more money.  While Mitt and the RNC raised $106 million, President Obama and the DNC raised only $71 million.

Mitt Raising Big Bucks

Mitt and the GOP raised $76.8 million in May, almost twice the $40 million they raised in April.

By contrast, President Obama and the Dems raised only $60 million, up from $43.6 million in April, when both sides were pretty close.

Coming on the heels of the enormous monetary advantage the GOP had in Wisconsin, this is extremely discouraging.

Guess Where Mitt Raises the Most Money?

Checking Mitt’s contributions by zip code, most of his money comes from Palm Beach, Florida; the Upper East Side of Manhattan; and Greenwich, Connecticut.

The usual suspects.  A campaign of the one percent, by the one percent, for the one percent.

If you can’t afford to live in those places, you can’t afford Mitt living in the White House.