Carson, Trump tops among small donors
The GOP primary poll leaders attract most donors of $200 or less.
Small checks can add up to big bucks.
The two poll-topping candidates who’ll occupy center stage in tonight’s third Republican presidential debate — part- time Palm Beacher Donald Trump and West Palm Beach resident Ben Carson — are also the candidates who have raised the largest share of their campaign cash from small donors.
Retired neurosurgeon Carson raised $31.3 million through Sept. 30 — with $19.6 million, or 63 percent, coming from people who gave $200 or less.
Trump, despite his billionaire status and pledge to self- fifinance his campaign, has attracted $3.9 million in contributions, with $2.8 million of that — 72 percent — coming from those small donors giving $200 or less.
The contributions to Trump have been entirely unsolicited, his campaign says. First-time candidate Carson, however, has spent heavily on donor lists, direct mail appeals and phone solicitations to build his contributor base.
By comparison, only 5 percent of the $24.8 million raised by Republican establishment favorite Jeb Bush has come from small contributors. And less than 1 percent of the $103 million raised by the Bush-backing Right To Rise super PAC through June 30 came from people who gave $200 or less.
The Federal Election Commission requires campaigns to list the name, address and occupation of people who give more than $200, whether it’s in a single check or multiple contributions. Money from peo- ple giving $200 or less can be lumped together as “unitemized” gifts on FEC reports.
Raising money in little pieces rather than fat checks can give populist credibility to a campaign. It also gives a candidate a list of supporters who can be hit up for more money before reaching the federal individual contribution limit of $2,700 for a primary and $2,700 for a general election.
Democrat Bernie Sanders has been the most prolific small-dollar candidate, raising $30.7 million — more than three-quarters of his contributions — in unitemized donations. Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has raised $13.3 million from small donors, or 17 percent of her campaign’s $77 million haul. The pro-Clinton Priorities USA super PAC raised $15.7 million through June 30, with only $1,092 in unitemized gifts.
Small dollars aren’t necessarily cheap. Car- son’s campaign incurred $11.2 million in fundraising costs last quarter to bring in $20.7 million — a burn rate that has raised some eyebrows.
“The fundraising is reflective of the campaign. The campaign is really a campaign of the people,” says Carson’s national finance chairman, Dean Parker, a former tech company CEO who has never worked on a political campaign before.
Parker said Carson had to spend heavily to raise money because he’s not a politician.
“We didn’t have a donor list when we started. We had to go and track donors. Every other campaign had donors,” said Parker, who expects Carson’s fundraising costs to go down.
Carson has placed second to Trump in most national GOP polls over the last two months, but he led Trump in a CBS News/New York Times survey released Tuesday. The poll showed Carson favored by 26 percent of Republican primary voters and Trump preferred by 22 percent.
The two will be at cen- ter stage during today’s debate of the top 10 Republican candidates, hosted by CNBC at 8 p.m. EDT at the University of Colorado in Boulder. The other four GOP candidates will debate on CNBC at 6 p.m.
“Carson’s gross (fundraising) numbers are impressive,” said Brian Ballard, a Tallahassee lobbyist who is a fundraiser for Bush. But Ballard also noted Carson’s high cost of attracting contributions. And he said big donors come in handy in the long haul.
“Having the institutional money matters in terms of being able to compete with Democrats,” Ballard said.
Trump, at a rally in Doral last week, mocked Bush’s fundraising.
“Jeb Bush has $125 million — honestly, I don’t think it’s going to help him,” Trump said while arguing that major contributors expect something in return from poli- ticians.
“Hey look, I used to be one of those guys that gave a lot of money,” Trump said.
While decrying super PACs and challenging other candidates to disavow them, Trump boasted about the people giving small contributions to his campaign.
“People send in small donations. Like, small ones. A woman — $7.50 with about a four-page letter. Another woman $50, $30, $90. ...” Trump said.
“But that I love because, number one, you can’t send it back. How do you send a letter back to a woman who loves the country, who’s giving a lot of money – that’s like giving $1 million to a rich person. How do you send the $7.50 back? You can’t. ... There’s no letter you can write to that woman to say ‘We don’t want your money.’ ”