Burlington mayoral candidate Carina Driscoll earned a $1,000 campaign donation from her stepfather, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), but it wasn’t enough to match Mayor Miro Weinberger’s hefty war chest.
The two-term incumbent tallied $107,000 by Saturday’s campaign finance filing deadline, more than double the $46,000 Driscoll raised. Infinite Culcleasure has $10,500 in his campaign coffers, including $5,500 amassed since the last filing deadline three weeks ago.
Weinberger, meanwhile, raked in $26,000 during that same time period, mostly in larger donations. With 10 days remaining until the March 6 election, he’s on pace to come close to — or even surpass — his 2012 fundraising total of $118,000.
Driscoll’s haul was buoyed by the support of Our Revolution, a group launched by Sanders. The national organization sent out a fundraising email blast for Driscoll to much of the state in February, soliciting $5 donations. A total of 146 contributors helped her earn $13,200 since the last fundraising filing. While Weinberger received a list of large checks, more than 90 percent of Driscoll’s donors since February 4 gave less than $100. Driscoll has said she will not accept campaign contributions from businesses or corporations. Her sole $1,000 donation came from Sanders.
Weinberger earned support from former governors Howard Dean ($250) and Peter Shumlin ($1,000), as well as Bruce Lisman ($500), a Republican candidate for governor in 2016. Bill Stetson, a Norwich, Vt., film producer and environmental advisor to several presidential campaigns, gave $1,000, as did former U.S. attorney Eric Miller and his wife, Liz Miller, who serves as spokesperson for developer Don Sinex. Cincinnatus PAC, a Democratic political action committee based in Ohio, gave Weinberger $500.
As usual, Weinberger raked in contributions from a host of Burlington businessmen, including Northfield Savings Bank CEO Tom Leavitt ($1,000), developers Ed and Frank von Turkovich ($250), David Farrington Jr. (who gave $1,000 through an LLC) and Seventh Generation CEO Joey Bergstein ($500). Another $1,000 came from the Clarendon & Pittsford Railroad Company, while Burlington Housing Authority executive director Allyson Laackman gave $500. Her husband, Donald, serves as president of Champlain College.
In the last three weeks, Weinberger dropped $11,000 of his war chest on an assortment of glossy mailings, brochures and campaign literature. He’s spent a total of $78,000 during the campaign. Driscoll has spent $30,000, while Culcleasure has used about $5,300.
Driscoll on Saturday earned the endorsement of the Burlington Free Press, who lauded her platform centered on “meeting the needs of low- and moderate-income residents.”
Culcleasure has generally spurned fundraising, vowing to run a bare-bones campaign.
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Moneybags Miro . . . backed by his 1%er buddies who are cashing in his Neo-liberal agenda of MORE MORE MORE until the entire rickety contraption collapses under it’s own weight. But by then Miro and his buddies will be long gone to greener pastures. These Wall Street/Clinton/Schumer/Cuomo Democrats are really no better than the GOP. They are cannibals and locusts.
More development= more people= more problems=more stress on infrastructure=more pollution in the lake=more crime=more traffic . . . gee, thanks Miro.
now here come the Miro-bots to his defense . . .
“Moneybags Miro . . . “
Got a problem with money in politics? The hypocrite who just gave $1,000 to his Royal Stepdaughter’s campaign has raised over $6 million for reelection to his 100% guaranteed safe Senate seat in 2018.
Moneybags Bernie.
Chew on that.
Now here come the Bernie-bots to his defense . . .
Legally mandated filings show “large checks” for Weinberger while 90% of Driscoll’s contributors gave less than $100. The money tells the story and the truth. The Weinberger campaign and program are premised on the mayor’s office and Burlington itself being up for sale, but only to qualified buyers. The model is heavily weighted toward real estate development and privatizing public assets. It’s light on attention to the full spectrum of the public interest.
Driscoll has the experience and the commitment to be a mayor for all of Burlington’s people, even though she hasn’t “raked in” quite such a barrel of cash.
Either way- Burlington fails.
Its like the canary in the coal mine
Driscoll has stated that this is her campaign, but her step fathers organization did fund raising for her. Not much different. Driscoll and Infinite have nothing to run on and have nothing to offer.
Michael Long- You supported the mayor 6 years ago but since he won’t bow to you and your group of cronies you have become anti-everything Miro.
knowyourassumptions: Given your name, one would think that you wouldn’t be so quick to make assumptions. Oh well.
If you know anything about big money in politics – you would know that sheer $ amount does not really matter. What matter’s is WHERE you get your money from, and how much the average donation is. The whole thing is about the appearance of corruption. If someone gets many $1000 checks from developers – it’s safe to say that they are unduly influenced by developers. However, and this is big so pay attention, if you’re getting a bunch of money from small donors – that just means that your message is resonating. I wouldn’t care if a politician raised a trillion dollars for a campaign if that money came from grassroots small dollar donors. If you consider money as corruption it all makes sense.
I don’t want a candidate that is corrupted by big money from rich people. The fact that Bernie can raise $6 million dollars with a small average gift is fantastic because it shows that his message resonates with average people. In closing, total campaign money on hand doesn’t matter – it’s the average gift that matters.
But that requires thinking, and darn it thinking is hard!!
@ BPO:
Yes, there is a difference between large checks and small checks, but, fundamentally, the point is this:
Bernie screams “get money out of politics” but he does the exact opposite. He raises an obscene — yes, I’ll call it OBSCENE — amount of money for a shoo-in Senate reelection campaign, with no challenger, that he could win without spending a single dollar, without doing a single ad, and without ever making a single campaign appearance. So why raise the money? And why raise such an obscene amount? You’re not actually going to spend it on your reelection campaign so why are you raising it? To scare off challengers? First of all, that’s a laugh. Second, “scaring off challengers” is hypocritical because that’s exactly what he accusses other “big money” politicians of doing.
How much is $6 million divided by the number of Vermont voters who typically vote in a non-presidential election year?
He’s not raising it because he needs it. Or because it’s appropriate. He’s raising it because he wants lots and lots and lots and lots of money in the bank, that’s why.
Mind you, we’re NOT talking about a presidential election campaign fund here. We’re talking only about a US Senate reelection fund. Six. Million. Dollars..
Or, is he defrauding his donors by not telling them that he is planning to siphon off all of that money to an unannounced presidential election campaign in 2020?
It’s absolutely absurd that a candidate for Burlington’s mayor needs to raise six figures in order to run an effective campaign. Especially an incumbent who — it’s pretty safe to say — enjoys near-universal name recognition. Aside from slick glossies that immediately end up in the recycling bin, what, exactly, does Miro need this money for?
Where it comes from tells you all you need to know:
“Weinberger earned support from former governors Howard Dean ($250) and Peter Shumlin ($1,000), as well as Bruce Lisman ($500), a Republican candidate for governor in 2016. Bill Stetson, a Norwich, Vt., film producer and environmental advisor to several presidential campaigns, gave $1,000, as did former U.S. attorney Eric Miller and his wife, Liz Miller, who serves as spokesperson for developer Don Sinex. Cincinnatus PAC, a Democratic political action committee based in Ohio, gave Weinberger $500.”
Republican Bruce Lisman. Spokesperson for Don Sinex. An out-of-state PAC.
Carina Driscoll is trying hard to ride the old Windbreakers coat tails Lets face it if Bernie and Jane gave Carina Sanders Driscoll a five pound box of money in five dollar bills and it all comes through their 501(c)4 it is in my mind one donation all of that out of state cash is funneled through one cream horn.
How many of these 5 dollar donations have one clue who the heck Carina Driscoll is let alone her qualifications to become mayor?
This is a BS story by Mr BS who wont come to town for an interview and dictates how, when, and to whom he will give an audience. This article is like reading gossip, nothing to see here but the stench is offal.
Apparently, development is what happens after you have a nice house.
“It’s absolutely absurd that a candidate for Burlington’s mayor [insert: Vermont Senator] needs to raise six figures [insert: seven figures] in order to run an effective campaign. Especially an incumbent who — it’s pretty safe to say — enjoys near-universal name recognition. Aside from slick glossies that immediately end up in the recycling bin, what, exactly, does Miro [insert: Bernie] need this money for?”
Did you realize that you were writing about Bernie?
Who Funds Mayor Weinberger’s Campaigns?
http://charleswinkleman.com/2018/02/06/who…
Over a $100K to be re-elected?!?!?! Shady!! Numerous $1000 donations from tony-addressed fat cats… lame!! Who are you working to benefit Weinberger???
@ Critikboy
What if a single campaign donor owns a Washington DC condo, a Burlington house, and a Champlain Islands lake house (and maybe other real estate assets)? Is that person a “tony-addressed fat cat”?
Such a fat cat would be a $1,000 donor to Carina Sanders’s, er, I mean Carina Driscoll’s, campaign.
@knowyourassumptions
A lame but not surprising use of a classic obfuscation tactic wherein you prefer to concentrate on the ONE $1000 donation for Driscoll from a parent rather than on the ELEVEN $1000 donations for Weinberger; in this disclosure statement alone. It is pretty obvious from the facts (the written record of the names and addresses of the donors and amounts of the donations) that the mayor is the candidate who has the overwhelming support from the wealthy biz community; moreso than Driscoll. I think that is disempowering to people who don’t have money. You may feel differently. I am sorry that any response will allow you to continue some tangential tirade for your anti-Bernie sentiments. So have at it. This story and thread have been bumped off the carousel of prime stories so shout into the ether if you want to… plenty of anti-Bernie Bros out there to get you your likes…
R&D/BTV Progs lose it when local business owners who operate in BTV, employ people in BTV, pay taxes in BTV support the mayor. On the other hand they don’t mind when people who have no connection to Burlington donate over $13,000 to Carina simply because she is Bernie’s stepdaughter and his political organization told them to.
@JCinBTV
I wish you anti-Bernie people would read the campaign finance disclosure statements carefully before making wild and erroneous broad brush statements about the Driscoll campaign. Although in your defense the article was vague and leads one to believe that Our Revolution donated 13K to Driscoll’s campaign. There is no evidence of that. The 13K the article speaks of is the entire amount she raised since the last disclosure on February 4th none of it I am aware is from Our Revolution.
But if we want to open up the can of worms that is non local money? Sure. We can do that.
I used a very strict definition of “non local” If you define “non local” as meaning not having a Burlington VT address and using that across both campaigns without prejudice. We only have itemized lists for donations 100 or above as provided in the documents.
Taking both the disclosure statements (Feb 4 and Feb. 24-the only public source of numbers we have) for both campaigns.
Weinberger campaign- $31,375 out of $107,048 for contributions without a Burlington VT address- 29%
Driscoll campaign- $5252 of $46,153 for contributions without a Burlington address- 11%
Even just using this last disclosure statement:
In contributions above 100 bucks? Driscoll= $952
Weinberger $6,675
Even if you add in Driscoll’s small contributions (100 or less- which you might falsely assume could be part of that $5 email pledge drive by Our Revolution?) and then counted that as entirely made up up of non local money? Her total non local donations equal $6382… she doesn’t even beat his total of non local money for three weeks of fundraising.
So please… stop with the whole “Driscoll’s flooding the race with “outside” money argument. The numbers show Miro is the one who is doing that.
Anti-Bernie? I’ve voted for Bernie each time he’s been on the ballot since I was 18. Questioning whether Driscoll should be Mayor has nothing to do with your support for Sanders or your support for real progressive political action.
You’re right, I was wrong about that number, but if the Driscoll campaign is so locally focused why is it that she has SPENT so much of her money on DC based political consultants? Nearly $9000 to a campaign company called Convergence for…brochures? Pretty sure you can buy those at locally at Vantage Press