Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) may only face a field of long-shot challengers in his bid for reelection, but he continues to raise money as if his political future depended on it.
In his latest Federal Election Commission filing, which covers April through June, Sanders’ senatorial campaign fund, “Friends of Bernie Sanders,” reported $1.43 million in donations and $749,000 in expenditures, lifting its cash-on-hand total to $7.58 million.
The donations came entirely from individuals; he took no money from corporations or political action committees. Most of the expenditures were for Sanders’ extensive travel and public appearances, and for staffing. His campaign has five paid staffers, including longtime Sanders ally Jeff Weaver, whose twice-monthly salary is just under $8,000 — an annualized rate of roughly $190,000.
Sanders will have little reason to draw on his overstuffed war chest. He remains extremely popular, and his declared challengers have little or no political experience. The Democratic primary includes Folasade Adeluola, an Indiana woman who claims a Shelburne motel as her Vermont residence, and Jon Svitavsky, an advocate for the homeless. The Republican side has four long-shot hopefuls: Burlington attorney Jasdeep Pannu; Manchester realtor Lawrence Zupan; Washington resident H. Brooke Paige; and perpetual presidential candidate Rocky de la Fuente, a resident of California. Independent candidate Brad Peacock, a Shaftsbury farm worker, rounds out the field.
U.S. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) also carries a healthy bankroll into what’s almost certain to be an easy November victory. He raised $130,000 in the three-month reporting period, including $70,000 from individuals and $60,000 from political action committees. The percentage of individual gifts is substantially higher than usual for Welch; he normally raises the lion’s share of his money from PACs.
Welch’s campaign committee spent $66,000 and also made two large transfers: $100,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and $10,000 to the Vermont Democratic Party. Expenditures outpaced receipts for the period, but Welch’s campaign still has $2.08 million in the bank.
Like Sanders, Welch faces no established political figures in his bid for a seventh term in Congress. Declared candidates include Democrats Dan Freilich and Ben Mitchell, and Republicans Anya Tynio and Paige, a perpetual candidate running for multiple offices.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) doesn’t face the prospect of reelection until 2022, when he will be 82 years old; his campaign wasn’t terribly active and retains a healthy bottom line. The Leahy campaign collected $19,000 in donations, roughly half from individuals and half from PACs. Expenditures totaled $66,000, which — in the exclusive neighborhood of big-money politics — is essentially the cost of keeping the doors open and the lights on. Leahy paid more than $11,000 for staffing, $15,000 to a fundraising firm and $13,000 to Trilogy Interactive, a political strategy consultant.
Leahy’s spending may have vastly exceeded his intake, but weep not for our senior senator. His campaign fund still has $1.68 million in cash on hand.
Welch and Leahy also operate their own political action committees, known as “leadership PACs,” which can raise additional money from those who have contributed the maximum amount to the candidates’ reelection accounts. Their latest finance reports show relatively modest activity.
Welch’s Maple PAC received three donations in the reporting period totaling $12,500. All were from other PACs: $5,000 each from the Honeywell International and National Association of Convenience Stores PACs, and $2,500 from the Food Marketing Institute PAC. Maple PAC spent $7,300, mostly in donations to Democratic congressional candidates. It ended the period with $60,000 in cash on hand.
Leahy’s Green Mountain PAC received $80,000 in contributions, including $31,000 from other PACs. It spent $104,000, and ended the period with $13,000 in the bank. Leahy’s PAC gave $23,000 to Democratic Senate candidates in other states, and $20,000 to various party organizations, including $5,000 to the Vermont Democratic Party.
Correction, July 17, 2018: A previous version of this article did not identify H. Brooke Paige as a candidate for U.S. Senate.
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“The World Wide trump NIGHTMARE,courtesy of Bernie Sanders.”
No, courtesy of Trump himself.
No, hes doing EXACTLY what he accuses everyone else of doing. Raising obscene amounts of money in politics.
Not quite. Bernie accuses others of raising obscene amounts of money from wealthy interests–big pharm, corporations, wealthy individuals hiding behind a super pac, for example. This is what the phrase money in politics means. It’s metonymy where money is representative of the interests behind it and to what the recipient of the money is beholden. Example, the NRA gives a politician a huge donation. That politician is not going to want to upset this donor by voting for more gun control.
Bernie is raising obscene amounts of money from individual donors, a lot of them, each giving a reasonable amount of money. In this model there is not one or two interest groups controlling the donations and the politician by extension.
Now you may be angry about how much money Bernie is raising or how much money is raised by politicians in general but at least recognize the distinction between how Bernie is raising money and how others do it.
The World Wide trump NIGHTMARE,courtesy of Bernie Sanders
No matter how much Sanders, Welch or Leahy rake in for their campaigns, or spout their rehearsed speeches, PLEASE don’t forget that they were the ones who did not do their homework and ignored the initial environment and military reports when they approved and welcomed the dangerous, highly toxic to our environment and health, heavily armed F-35’s to our residential neighborhoods. They turned our beloved Burlington into a future military base, which will only eat up more of our neighborhoods and beautiful state to make room for more military planes and dangerous fly overs as time goes on. They refused to listen to the cries of over 8,000+ people with families that live in the negatively affected areas vs saving 1,000 VTANG jobs, where there were positive alternative routes to satisfy all. The Burlington people even voted their disapproval on their city ballots only to be shim shamed by their fellow cronie, Weinberger, with developer Pomerleau quietly lurking behind. Shame on them! These “representatives” for the people of Vermont will NEVER get my vote again.
WELL he was paid off to leave the race and he took money from the big PAC’S and when he left the race he kept the money from his donators…Greedy B—ard. Just like, Leahy and Welch, All 3 are LYING CROOKS.
John,
Don’t want to be picky but you failed to mention that I am also on the Republican primary ballot for U.S. Senate along with Larry, Jasdeep and Rocky ! If I win the Republican nominations for U.S. Senate and U.S. House – the Republican Party will be submitting a well-known, highly capable candidate to appear on the General Election ballot in my place !
BTW – it is sad to see Bernie “working over” his followers, many of whom are of modest means, asking for $2, $5 and $10 to insure he has plenty of money to fend of the evil Republican forces who will never materialize. In reality the will employ friends and especially family to populate his campaign and paying them outrageous salaries. At the same time he hires office staff who are paid minimum wage and are treated poorly – of course they never campaign because they’re doing it for the “Bern” !
All the Best,
Brooke
May I stay alive long enough to live at least one of my dreams: TERM LIMITS and the end of the gravy train ride for these three and so many corrupted politicians.
No, hes doing EXACTLY what he accuses everyone else of doing. Raising obscene amounts of money in politics.
And please explain, dear Philo, regardless of who the money comes from, why he needs it? What is he actually going to use it for? He SOLICITS it as for his Senate re-election. But he absolutely, positively doesnt need it for that and isnt going to use it for that. So hes just a hypocritical fraud. Thats all.
Something is missing from your commentary but that tends to happen when you pick out a line or two that serves your point from an entire article.
Observe.
“The donations came entirely from individuals; he took no money from corporations or political action committees.”
Hence, taking the money out of politics.
It’s very important that Bernie keep those millions and millions of campaign dollars rolling in because, lord knows, he faces a tough, tough reelection to the U.S. Senate.
Oh, but wait:
“Sanders will have little reason to draw on his overstuffed war chest. He remains extremely popular, and his declared challengers have little or no political experience.”
Hmm. You’re saying he’s a shoo-in for reelection? You’re saying he doesn’t actually NEED that incredibly large campaign warchest? Gee, then why is he amassing it? Why is he calling for campaign donations that he doesn’t need? This is really strange to me, cuz Bernie constantly talks about the obscene amount of money in politics.
Maybe you could ask Bernie why he raised all this campaign cash he actually doesn’t need? Oh, but that’s right, you can’t ask him, because he won’t talk to the Vermont media.