In Campaign Money Race, Democrats Vastly Outpacing Republicans
The Democratic presidential contenders dramatically outpaced their Republican counterparts in the race for campaign cash last quarter, spotlighting how the parties are taking divergent paths in their pursuit of 2016 funding.
The emphasis by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders on raising money directly for their campaigns has helped them amass large donor pools critical to generating the estimated $1 billion each party’s candidate will need to raise by Election Day.
While GOP candidates put an intense focus early in the year on raising huge sums for independent groups, many have had less success in attracting smaller donations that are the lifeblood of campaign operations, campaign finance reports filed Thursday show.
The risk of the big-money approach was underscored by the modest $13.4 million raised over the summer by former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who earlier this year was expected to be a financial powerhouse. Just $877,000 came from donations of $200 or less.
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