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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Still amaze me that people will vote for the old socialist. the crook the bank fraud who’s being investigated by the FBI and so is his crooked wife. They should also investigate her daughter’s so-called woodworking school.
Sanders getting money up the gazoo with all his traveling all over the country campaigning and getting paid for it…He’s not doing it for free.!! Too bad he doesn’t do anything for Vermont… oh wait he’s never had except take take and take some more and talk hot air…
@ Ted Sargent
Actually, I initially misread your comment. After re-reading it I agree with you that Bernies ridiculous ego is probably at least partially responsible for the worldwide nightmare of Trump.
Sanders is raising buckets of money he doesn’t need for his own race so that he can increase his political power. He can swing that moolah to further his goals. How hard is that to understand? If you approve of his views then great, if not then he is just another source of funds from those whom you disagree with. This childish question ,Why does Bernie need this money, that SevenDays and others here bring up is laughably naive. Grow up!
To be fair, I don’t think Bernie Sanders can do no wrong, I don’t think he is a saint or a god, and I would certainly not support Bernie Sanders murdering a small child. I do like a lot of Bernie’s political ideas, especially over most of what is out there in present day politics. I am simply pointing out here that Bernie raises money in a way that is different from traditional politicians.
As far as why he needs the money or how he intends to spend it, who knows. Maybe he intends to hire Hillary Clinton to make a few speeches. He reports how the money is spent so if you really care specifically how Bernie spends the money you can look it up. If you care about how much money it takes to win an office in general then Bernie Sanders really is not the whole of the problem.
Hi @Brooke, We’ve corrected the story. Sorry for the oversight and thanks for letting us know!
These are interesting comments. On the one hand, you have Philo for whom Sanders can do no wrong. I’m pretty confident that Sanders could murder a small child on Main Street in broad daylight and Philo would find a justification for it. On the other hand you have Ms. Boutin who will assign criminal motives to everything that Sanders does. Of course, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Sanders is no different most other politicians – not a saint or the Antichrist but a somewhat dishonest, and extremely hypocritical self promoter more interested in promoting himself than in actually coming up with realistic solutions for the problems facing his constituents.
You don’t seem to get that I do understand the difference between obscene money raised from individuals, and obscene money raised from a few large sources, I get it. Can we move on now?
It’s still an obscene amount of money. It’s still big money in politics. And you’ve avoided my question of why Senator Shoo-in needs this money?