Are Clinton’s fundraising emails misleading?
Either I am misinterpreting something or Hillary Clinton is facing a fundraising crisis that is not fully conveyed in Politico’s reporting yesterday and today. Emails sent out by Clinton’s campaign indicate her campaign’s fundraising goal for March is only $3 million.
Since I seldom pay close attention to the pitch, I deleted some of Clinton’s fundraising emails and may not have the all the facts. However these are the facts based on the emails I have available. To my knowledge, there was no specific fundraising goal stated before March 28.
The following image is an excerpt of an email Team Clinton sent out Friday March 21. The email did not state a specific goal. (The Saturday deadline is a tad misleading because the FEC deadline is not until 10 days later, but that’s not the issue I’m raising.) Specifically, it states: "We need a massive show of support by midnight Saturday. Contribute now to help us win in Pennsylvania and beyond."
Click on any image to view a larger, more legible image.
March 21 Email
An email sent Friday March 28 states: "Contribute $5 today to help us raise $3 million by the March filing deadline at midnight Monday." The same email included a graphic, which eliminates the possibility of what I first thought was a typographical error.
March 28 Email
March 28 Email
An email sent earlier today (3/31) stated the same goal. I checked Clinton’s web site and as of 11:00 PM ET it also specifies a $3 million goal, so it can’t be just a mistake…multiple goals maybe, but they don’t make a clear distinction this is a one-day-goal or something similar.
March 31 Email
Clinton Web Site March 31
It’s hard to believe Clinton went from more raising more than $35 million in February to begging for 10 percent of that amount in March. If she cannot raise $3 million in a single month, the calls for Clinton to get out of the race are moot. Heck, she won’t be able pay Mark Penn his $2.5 million per month much less consider being competitive nationally or in a single state.
Either Team Clinton is grossly misleading potential donors or they are in serious financial trouble.
Update: See this post for an update.
Yes, you did misunderstand the e-mails. Clinton raised far more than $3 million in March.
Clinton raised $6 million online just from March 1 through March 6 alone (you can check bloomberg.com which shows the story with the quoted figure).
I do agree that the e-mails are rather confusing as to what the time period is for the $3 million goal, but my understanding is the goal was to raise $3 million from the evening of March 28 through March 31.
Thanks Chris. That helps a lot.