Bernie Sanders Raises Nearly $1 Million in Under Six Weeks

[TexasTowelie]

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) reelection campaign raised more than $925,000 in fewer than six weeks, according to his latest filing with the Federal Election Commission. Sanders, who easily won a third Senate term in November and is contemplating a second presidential run in 2020, reported spending nearly $730,000 during the same period, from October 18 to November 26.

That leaves him with nearly $8.8 million, which could be transferred to a campaign for president, should he decide to run.

Sanders' expenses are consistent with those of a probable presidential candidate. They include about $113,000 on events; nearly $92,000 on salaries to 31 individuals; more than $64,000 on travel by car and plane; more than $60,000 on research, including $52,000 to the polling company Tulchin Research; and more than $37,000 on lodging.

His travel expenses also included a $6,800 payment to the private charter plane company Apollo Jets, as well as $5,000 in carbon offsets to Native Energy to compensate for his air travel. According to a previous FEC filing, Sanders spent nearly $300,000 on chartered planes earlier in the campaign season, as VTDigger.org reported last week.

Read more: https://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2018/12/07/bernie-sanders-raises-nearly-1-million-in-under-six-weeks

[James48]

1. Go Bernie!

He should have been President now. He will do great next election.

[Power 2 the People]

5. +1

[Cha]

7. Hillary should be President now.

[TexasTowelie]

8. +1

[Cha]

10. ..

smh

[still_one]

9. Bullshit

[George II]

12. How "should" he have been president now? He wasn't even on the ballot.

[ehrnst]

15. How would that have happened?

[RandySF]

3. He's toast if Beto gets in

[TexasTowelie]

4. I believe that there or two or three other potential candidates

that would siphon support from a Sanders campaign. Among those are Elizabeth Warren, Joe Kennedy III, and Sherrod Brown.

[RandySF]

6. Many people underestimate the degree to which

Bernie’s actual primary vote total was a reaction to Hillary, especially in very white counties. If you look at this year’s Florida primary, Andrew Gillum overperfomed in her counties while Graham mostly won where Bernie did best.

[George II]

13. He's never gotten more than 208,000 votes in any general election.

[George II]

11. How can a Senate re-election campaign still be spending money more than a month after the election?

[Jim Lane]

14. Why don't you ask Pat Leahy?

The linked article reports that Leahy's campaign spent money during this period, more than two years after his last election.

My guess is that a campaign like Leahy's has ongoing expenses for fundraising, FEC compliance, etc. In addition, in Bernie's case, there were probably a lot of expenses incurred before the election but not billed and paid until afterward. For example, Bernie paid "carbon offsets to Native Energy to compensate for his air travel," so probably that amount wasn't even calculated until after the end of his extensive traveling on behalf of D-after-their-names Democratic candidates.