Hillary Clinton greets guests following the Democratic candidates debate on Jan. 17 in Charleston, South Carolina. | Getty
Joint committee helps state parties, but spends most of its cash boosting Clinton.
04/16/16 12:14 AM EDT
Hillary Clinton in the first three months of the year raised $33 million into a joint account her campaign formed with Democratic Party committees, according to a report filed Friday night with the Federal Election Commission.
The report shows that the joint account, called the Hillary Victory Fund, spent heavily trying to develop a small donor base for Clinton’s presidential campaign, but also took advantage of its unique structure to raise nearly $5 million from just 14 mega-rich donors, including entertainment titans Barry Diller, James Cameron and Haim Saban.
Story Continued Below
The fund comprises Clinton’s presidential campaign committee, as well as the Democratic National Committee and 32 state party committees. As a result, it can accept checks as large as $358,000 per person — a total determined by the maximum donation to each of its component committees ($5,400 to the Clinton campaign, $33,400 to the DNC and $10,000 to each of the state parties).
The idea is that the committee will help the state parties raise money for their general election efforts, an area where Clinton’s allies argue that her insurgent rival for the Democratic presidential nomination Bernie Sanders has done little. Sanders has a joint fundraising committee, as well, but it has been relatively inactive.
Yet, during the first three months of the year, the $2 million transferred by the Hillary Victory Fund to various state party committees paled in comparison to the $9.5 million it transferred to Clinton’s campaign committee or the $3.5 million it transferred to the DNC.
And the Hillary Victory Fund also spent $6.7 million on online ads that mostly looked like Clinton campaign ads, as well as $5.5 million on direct marketing. Both expenses seem intended at least in part to help Clinton build a small donor base, an area in which Sanders has far outpaced her.
FEC reports filed Friday showed that Clinton’s campaign and joint fundraising committee received a total of $1.8 million in checks bundled by lobbyists, including Tony Podesta (the brother of her campaign chairman John Podesta), former Sen. Mary Landrieu and energy lobbyist Ankit Nitin Desai.
Also during the first three months of the year, a pair of super PACs founded by Clinton ally David Brock that are supporting her campaign, American Bridge 21st Century and Correct the Record, combined to raise $4.7 million.
New York financier George Soros was the biggest donor to the PACs, donating $1 million to American Bridge. That brings his total known 2016 giving to Democratic groups to $20 million, and puts him on pace to exceed the $27 million he spent during the 2004 elections – widely considered the biggest election spending spree by a Democratic mega-donor in modern times.
Correct the Record received $500,000 from Henry Laufer, an executive at the investment management company started by billionaire mega-donor Jim Simons, $500,000 from Boston philanthropist Barbara Lee and $250,000 from medical device heiress Pat Stryker.
Correct the Record, which works with the Clinton campaign on messaging strategy, paid $126,000 to the West Wing Writers speech-writing firm, and donated $100,000 to a PAC called the Franklin Forum, which has conducted on-camera training for Clinton surrogates on behalf of Correct the Record.
Correct the Record and American Bridge combined to pay a whopping $535,000 in first quarter fundraising commissions to the firm of Mary Pat Bonner, a fundraiser who works closely with Brock and maintains deep ties to some of the wealthiest donors in Democratic politics.