Buzz Cut:
• Jeb set to debut biggest cash haul ever
• Big gay marriage hurricane about to hit GOP
• Clinton foundation: Oh, you mean that $31 million
• Power Play: Dems harden resolve against Obama trade deal
• Yes, even the trefoils
JEB SET TO DEBUT BIGGEST CASH HAUL EVER
To put Jeb Bush’s first-quarter fundraising in perspective, if it is, as expected, well over $100 million, he may have managed a 70 percent increase over Mitt Romney’s previous quarterly record, and done it a year earlier in the cycle. This is obviously very good news for Bush. For any other candidate hoping to woo big-money donors, a sum so large will make life very difficult. Just as Marco Rubio is ascending to the stratosphere and Chris Christie is getting ready to re-launch, Bush is making it clear that he’s building a Clinton-sized mother ship to take all the big-buck GOPers into orbit. The big donors who believe big money is the key to winning elections aren’t likely to try to try to top this. And for people who give to get access, they follow fundraising leaders rather than chase them. But, on the other hand, Bush is making a big gamble.
Bush is operating in a loophole within a loophole of campaign finance law. Because he is not officially a candidate and isn’t registered with federal elections officials, he can coordinate with the network of super PACs raising and, eventually, spending unlimited sums on his behalf. Other candidates, even the still-technically undeclared Scott Walker, are bound by elections rules related to their current positions. Bush is free to raise and direct the PAC because he is doing so as a private citizen. And because Bush is pioneering a new role for his PAC, it will need all of this and money and much more. But as soon as Bush declares himself a candidate, he will have to sever ties to PAC world. Bush is raising all of this money to hand over to Mike Murphy and say “see you after Election Day.”
Sums so vast provide a lot of cushion for mistakes in judgment. Plus, with this much cash behind him, Bush can start nudging other candidates out of the race. Ideological candidates relying on small-dollar donations won’t scare off easily, others, though, may decide they’d rather not endure having a $1 billion flamethrower in their faces. But Bush is debuting his nine-figure quarter at a moment when the country is very much talking about the dangers and improprieties of funny money and politicians. Team Jeb argues that the only way to beat Clinton cash is with more cash. Perhaps, but the narrative of two rival political families exploiting loopholes to fight a nuclear war of campaign spending won’t exactly stir the hearts of the Republican (or Democratic) base.
1) Jeb Bush; 2) Marco Rubio [+1]; 3) Scott Walker [-1]; 4) Ted Cruz; 5) Rand Paul; 6) Carly Fiorina [+1]; 7) Mike Huckabee [-1]; 8) Chris Christie; 9) John Kasich; 10)Rick Perry
On the Radar
– Ben Carson, Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal, Lindsey Graham
