www.zerohedge.com Joe Biden donors are reportedly ‘furious’ that the campaign has entered deficit spending – raising $15.7 million in the third quarter, while spending $2 million more than that, according to the New York Times.
Of that, one of his largest expenses was over $920,000 on chartered jets.
Terry McAuliffe, the former governor of Virginia and a prolific fund-raiser, said that donors were “furious” about the jet spending and called the campaign’s overall money situation “very alarming.” Mr. McAuliffe’s wife recently invited donors to attend a fund-raiser for Mr. Biden at their home in early November.
Mr. Schultz, when asked about the chartered travel, said that “whatever maximizes Joe Biden and voter interaction, the greater chance we have to win.” The campaign said Mr. Biden had flown commercial but declined to indicate when his last such flight was. –New York Times
On Thursday, Biden flip-flopped on his long-held opposition to a super PAC independent of the campaign – paving the way for donors to give unlimited sums of money to support the 76-year-old candidate.
“They’re worried when they see only $9 million in the bank, because donors have a tendency to believe the person with the most amount of money wins,” said former Pennsylvania governor and Biden fundraiser, who added that he does not share that view.
And while Biden still leads the 2020 Democratic pack in many polls, he is no longer the clear frontrunner amid accusations of corrupt schemes involving his son Hunter, and appearing very ‘elderly’ in gaffe-filled debates and press clips.
The pressure over money is bound to intensify as the leading Democratic campaigns compete in the early voting states and the extraordinarily expensive media markets of Super Tuesday states like California. Ms. Warren, currently Mr. Biden’s top rival, has already reserved $2.3 million more in television ads in the early voting states than he has, according to Advertising Analytics, a media-tracking firm. In the last 30 days, she spent twice as much as Mr. Biden on Facebook ads, while Mr. Buttigieg spent more than three times as much as Mr. Biden, who has begun buying more online ads after he sharply scaled back his digital spending over the summer. –New York Times
Biden’s advisers have downplayed concerns over cash and ad spending, arguing that the former Vice President is already universally known, and seen as the strongest challenger to Donald Trump.
His campaign has also given cute titles to top bundlers; anointing those who have raised $25,000 an “advocate,” $50,000 a “protector,” and $100,000 a “unifier.”
That said, Biden has miserably failed at attracting Obama’s massive fundraising operation. Out of almost 800 bundlers who raised at least $50,000 for the former president, less than a quarter have donated to Biden so far this year according to an analysis of data from the Federal Election Commission. And as the Times adds, “an even smaller share are actively tapping their networks for him.”
That said, donations have picked up in the last week amid “the sky-is-falling” tactics to encourage people to give money.
The campaign has employed some sky-is-falling tactics to spur giving, including an email last week threatening “budget cuts” if more money did not materialize. “Low on resources” was the subject line of a Friday missive. (No cutbacks are planned, the campaign said.)
If Mr. Biden’s fund-raising does not improve, he could be hard-pressed to ramp up his operations for the primary season. Just to pay for his existing campaign infrastructure through the Iowa caucuses would require the $9 million he has in the bank now plus the full fund-raising haul that he had in the third quarter. –New York Times
Give it up, Joe!