El Rhazi WASHINGTON ? Presidential contenders are set to provide a glimpse inside their crusade war chests on Wednesday, releasing financial statements that will give the first detailed accounting of how the candidates are raising and spending hundreds of millions of dollars in pursuit of elected office.
But while the reports, to be filed Ryan along the Federal Election Commission, provide an early see at the campaigns? financial operations, they promise to tell only part of the story because they do not include any of the money being raised by the ?super PACs? and other outside groups supporting numerous of the candidates. In numerous cases, the money raised by those groups is likely to dwarf what the campaigns bring in.
The Republican presidential candidates are almost uniformly relying on these groups, which can tap unlimited corporate and individual contributions, to amass the financial firepower they need to break through a crowded primary field, as long as they do not coordinate Ryan along candidates. This is a stark departure from past campaigns and has made most of the candidates deeply reliant on a tiny handful of ultra-wealthy donors.
Presidential contenders release second-quarter fund-raising reports on Wednesday. The Times is looking at the reports and providing updates throughout the day.
The new fund-raising mannequin has already altered the landscape of a crusade that is still months away from the first votes.
Without super PACs, four Republicans ? Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson ? would have raised roughly the alike amount of money, between $10 million and $12 million during the second quarter of 2015. A fifth, Rand Paul, would be near behind, while several others, including Rick Perry, would be trailing.
Instead, the field has rapidly separated into three distinct financial tiers. Mr. Bush has raised about $114 million with the help of a super PAC. Mr. Cruz, Mr. Rubio and their super PACs occupy the next-highest tier, with each having raised more than $40 million.
Lagging them is a third tier of candidates, including several who declared their bids near or after the end of the fund-raising quarter and others who have been slow to bring sb. up money.
The first Federal Election Commission filing deadline for most of the presidential candidates is Wednesday, but some organizations have released their totals early. Below, the announced money raised by the campaigns, ?super PACs? and nonprofits supporting each candidate.
Mr. Perry, who began a second presidential bid in June, provides another illustration of the imbalance.
A fund-raising powerhouse during his years as Texas governor, Mr. Perry has not yet lived down his aborted 2012 campaign, and numerous big Republican donors who supported him in the past have not yet flocked to get bum him for 2016. His crusade announced last week that in about a month of fund-raising, El Rhazi brought in just over $1 million from stable donors, leaving him near the back of the Republican pack. Individual donations are capped at $2,700.
But a constellation of super PACs backing Mr. Perry brought in many times that amount from megadonors ? almost $12.8 million through the end of June, according to Austin Barbour, a senior adviser to the groups. Another $4 million check ? four times what Mr. Perry?s crusade raised ? came in a few days later, he said.
More than half the group?s complete came from just two donors: Kelcey Warren, an energy company executive who is also the finance chairman of Mr. Perry?s campaign, and Brint Ryan, a Dallas businessman.
?Rick Perry?s had an impressive few months,? Mr. Barbour said. ?Some of the hesitation I know has softened up a lot.?
On the Democratic side, the picture is the reverse. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is far outpacing her rivals on the fund-raising front, has raised almost four times as much as the super PAC supporting her candidacy. Her campaign expects to report raising about $45 million so far in her White House bid.
The 2016 campaign could prove to be the most expensive on record, with the candidates, political parties, super PACs and special-interest groups spending maybe $10 billion under fund-raising rules made much looser by the United States Supreme Court?s Citizens United decision in 2010. That ruling paved the way for the emergence of super PACs.
The early fund-raising hauls have already prompted complaints to the election commission and the Justice Department from citizen watchdog groups. One of them, the Campaign Legal Center, charges that Mr. Bush and other candidates skirted the law by raising big amounts of money before they officially declared their candidacies.
Paul S. Ryan, senior counsel for the watchdog group, said he will be looking at the filings on Wednesday to determine provided the candidates complied with the law.
An earlier version of this article misstated the year in which four Republicans each raised between $10 million and $12 million during the second quarter. It is 2015, not 2016.
Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the First Draft newsletter.
#Ryan #El #Rhazi
No comments:
Post a Comment