When you’re a presidential candidate, appearances make all the difference. You want to show that you’re a leader amongst the pack. One way of standing out is showing you have a lot of money. Having money is a sign that you’re being supported by your fans and the people who want you to be elected. The more popular you are, the more money you should have in your election war chest.
One thing candidates have to do is be honest and be held accountable for the money they receive in campaign contributions. They must file with the FEC to offer a true accounting of their spending. The news media loves to harp on which candidate has the most money to spend because having money determines how long you can run a viable campaign.
A lack of support means less money coming in and vice versa. But some candidates play with the numbers to appear to be richer than they are. Every quarter, the FEC releases how much each candidate pulled in. By looking at these numbers, we can see what some candidates are doing to inflate their donation dollars.
Senator Amy Klobuchar is one example. You can track her expenses through the end of one quarter, but her spending dramatically exploded on the first day of April, the start of a new fundraising quarter. It shows that Klobuchar put off spending until the quarter was over, putting a huge spin on how much money she has in the bank.
Putting Things Off
This move allowed her to claim she had $7 million while if she conducted her spending spree BEFORE the quarter was over, it would’ve revealed she had only $6.35 million. While that might not seem like much of a difference, the $7 million reported makes her look better and among the candidates pulling in the most money.
Looking at campaign finance records, Klobuchar is just one of four presidential candidates doing the same. They’re playing with their money and being choosy when they spend so it can appear as if they have more money than they do. One tactic is delaying payment to staffers. It looks like the four same Democratic candidates all put off paying their staffers at the end of June and waited to pay their staff until the start of July to inflate their fundraising numbers.
The three other presidential campaigns spotted pulling this tactic include John Delaney from Maryland, Michael Bennett of Colorado, and Jay Inslee of Washington. These candidates stated that it’s the way the payment period was structured, blaming it on the end of the period falling on a Sunday. The problem is, the common practice would be for checks to be cut the Friday before the weekend.
“I haven’t heard of this practice before but I am not surprised,” said Kim McMurray, an executive council member of the Campaign Workers Guild and a former organizer for 2020 contender Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). “FEC timing deadlines are such an important moment for campaigns to show enthusiasm, support, etc. so campaigns want to show the largest number possible.”
“It is very disappointing if this came at the expense of the workers,” McMurray added.
