15-year-old Starts Sanders Super PAC, Uses Amazon Links to Raise Funds

[portlander23]

PRI: Shop on Amazon, help elect Bernie Sanders?

The Bern2016 super PAC was officially launched this week by 15-year-old Sebastian Burnham of Austin, Texas — a high school senior who cannot yet vote for his preferred candidate but is legally allowed to create a super PAC to advocate on Sanders’ behalf.

Until recently, Burnham’s group stated on its website — ProgressivesForBernie.com — that pro-Sanders shoppers could use a specialized Amazon.com link to donate to the super PAC “for free.”

The idea was to have a percentage of every purchase made by users who were referred there by Bern2016 benefit the super PAC.

“It has come to our attention that you are not in compliance with the Associates Program Operating Agreement,” Amazon.com wrote in an email to Burnham after questions from the Center for Public Integrity. “If you are not in compliance within five business days, we will be forced to terminate the Operating Agreement, close your Associates account and withhold advertising fees.”

He admitted it was “ironic” that he had launched a super PAC for a candidate who has disavowed super PAC support, but he argued that his group was different.

“I find nothing that Bernie has said that would inspire anyone to believe that our grassroots funding system is somehow unethical or unjustly sabotaging the electoral system,” Burnham said.

Sanders campaign spokesman Michael Briggs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

I dunno if this kid is a misguided idealist or a clever scammer, but this illustrates how wacky the campaign finance system has become.

[BlueWaveDem]

1. Pretty amazing that he's 15 and a senior in high school.

[mikehiggins]

2. Not really

When I was in high school my best friend, Ken Rofrano, was an intern in D.C. (the stories he would tell about what went on there were better than the letters in Penthouse) working a lot with Barry Goldwater. When Barry set up the Young Americans for Freedom Ken came back to NYC to spread the gospel. Him and me and two others wound up with the YAF Charter for all of NYS. Pretty good for a sophomore in High School. Pretty quickly we got snookered by a group of young lawyers to signing over the papers to them and we went into that long night, politically. They plied us with liquor, a group of 16 and 17 year old kids. As a result I was never able to drink rye whiskey without feeling sick to my stomach.

Kids can be a lot smarter and shrewder than adults give them credit for. By 15 a kid is practically an adult. The major difference is they lack experience, which mostly comes from living a life.

Without being cynical, when this kid realizes his political activism isn't likely to get him laid he'll most likely back off.