Bernie Raises Almost as Much Money as Hillary

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

01 October 15

f the Clinton campaign wants to find Bernie Sanders, all they have to do is look in the left lane at the Million Person March passing them by. They don’t have a super-PAC, and they aren’t pouring money into television ads that people fast-forward through with their DVRs – they’re doing it the old fashioned way, with a grassroots campaign. They are using new technology but with people power.

Bernie Sanders is now up double digits in New Hampshire and Iowa and raising nearly as much money from more donors than Hillary Clinton. The Sanders campaign announced that they have reached 1 million donations. Bernie is now outpacing Obama’s online fundraising from 2008, and it appears he has as much cash on hand as Hillary Clinton, who is outspending Sanders by more than 2 to 1.

Sanders has a more vibrant social media presence that includes more followers who are more engaged than the followers of the former secretary of state, who many claim is buying Facebook friends. Whether or not Clinton is paying for Facebook followers, her pages do not have the activity that the Sanders social media has.

Fundraising

In a stunning development just prior to the midnight deadline on September 30th, the Sanders campaign announced that they had reached 1 million donors and had raised 26 million dollars in the third quarter. The Clinton campaign, which has been pushing hard for one-dollar donors, had raised only $2 million more during the same quarter, but Clinton does not have as many donors. Of course, with her super-PACs Clinton has more money, but the fact that the campaign barely out-raised Sanders in the past few months has to be a big concern.

One of the biggest reasons the Democratic Party establishment gives for supporting Clinton is her ability to raise more money than Bernie. That argument is in jeopardy with the latest numbers.

Polling

Bernie Sanders has clearly passed Hillary in New Hampshire and Iowa. In New Hampshire, some polls have Bernie up 20 points. In Iowa, one poll has Sanders up 10 and another has him up 1, but the latest poll has Clinton up 21. The poll with Clinton up 21 is a PPP poll of registered voters, while the polls with Sanders ahead are polls of likely voters. I would call the Clinton poll an outlier, but prior to the two polls with Sanders ahead, Clinton was leading Iowa, so we will need more polling before we can determine who is really leading Iowa.

Nationally, the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll has Bernie within 7 points of Hillary. Earlier in the year, Clinton was up 60 points, so Sanders has made up over 50 percent in the last months.

Enthusiasm

From the very beginning, Bernie Sanders has been drawing larger crowds than Clinton. While the Clinton campaign claims they have not tried to draw large crowds, the truth is the Sanders campaign hasn’t either. They just announce an event and the RSVPs pour in. In most of the locations where there were large rallies, the campaign didn’t have staff on the ground. The Clinton campaign has also announced events in advance, and they do not get the kind of RSVPs the Sanders campaign receives.

Bernie’s largest event so far was in Portland, Oregon, where he drew 28,000. Hillary’s largest event to date was her announcement on Roosevelt Island, which 5,000 people attended. Some in the Clinton campaign point to a fundraiser in Virginia that was attended by 11,000, but it was organized by the Virginia Democratic Party and was a fundraiser for them, not Hillary. While she was the big draw, the party was selling tickets for months prior to the event.

Social Media

On Facebook, Hillary Clinton has 1.4 million likes and Bernie has 1.6 million. More importantly, studies have shown that Bernie’s followers are more active on his page, while larger numbers of Hillary followers have only clicked the Like button and have not done anything else on her page. When it comes to the unofficial pages, Bernie’s advantage is greater. There are multiple pages in every state. There are many grassroots organizations organizing on their own for Bernie. One group has over 100,000 people who have RSVP’d for a rally in Washington DC likely to take place in March. Another group is organizing a protest at the first debate in Las Vegas. Progressive Democrats of America also has its own social media effort. People for Bernie is an effort led by veterans of the Occupy movement. Labor for Bernie, Veterans for Bernie, People of Color, Latinos, women, and many other groups are using social media to organize for Bernie in addition to the official campaign effort.

There is also a large effort from young people and students for Bernie, which will be the focus of a future article.

One thing is clear: the days of looking at Hillary Clinton as the presumptive nominee are over. We currently have two strong contenders for the nomination, with Vice President Joe Biden still deciding if he should enter the race. Clearly, the momentum is on Bernie’s side.

Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott will be spending a year covering the presidential election from Iowa.

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