How Elizabeth Warren Raised Big Money Before She Denounced Big Money

[brooklynite]

New York Times

On the highest floor of the tallest building in Boston, Senator Elizabeth Warren was busy collecting big checks from some of the city’s politically connected insiders. It was April 2018 and Ms. Warren, up for re-election, was at a breakfast fund-raiser hosted for her by John M. Connors Jr., one of the old-guard power brokers of Massachusetts.

Soon after, Ms. Warren was in Manhattan doing the same. There would be trips to Hollywood and Silicon Valley, Martha’s Vineyard and Philadelphia — all with fund-raisers on the agenda. She collected campaign funds at the private home of at least one California megadonor, and was hosted by another in Florida. She held finance events until two weeks before her all-but-assured re-election last November.

Then, early this year, Ms. Warren made a bold bet that would delight the left: She announced she was quitting this big-money circuit in the 2020 presidential primary, vowing not to attend private fund-raisers or dial up rich donors anymore. Admirers and activists praised her stand — but few noted the fact that she had built a financial cushion by pocketing big checks the years before.

The open secret of Ms. Warren’s campaign is that her big-money fund-raising through 2018 helped lay the foundation for her anti-big-money run for the presidency. Last winter and spring, she transferred $10.4 million in leftover funds from her 2018 Senate campaign to underwrite her 2020 run, a portion of which was raised from the same donor class she is now running against.

I've been to several high-dollar events for Warren. The WSJ ran an article in 2012 about "Wall Street Lawyers" supporting her (my wife was referenced).

[BeyondGeography]

1. Good that she was able to use these donors to help build her brand

to the point where she was free not to spend valuable time on them in the primary.

[HiloHatti]

2. The New York Times Hates Progressives

[highplainsdem]

4. They've published a number of hit pieces on Biden, too, this year.

[highplainsdem]

3. "Mr. Rendell said he had recruited donors to attend an intimate fund-raising dinner for Ms. Warren

last year at Barclay Prime, a Philadelphia steakhouse where the famed cheesesteak goes for $120. (The dish includes Wagyu rib-eye, foie gras, truffled cheese whiz and a half-bottle of champagne.) He said he received a “glowing thank-you letter” from Ms. Warren afterward."

Does sound like excellent cheesesteak...

[brooklynite]

6. "truffled cheese whiz"?

[highplainsdem]

7. Gourmet street food.

[crazytown]

5. The Sirota Left are feeding up their white ants.

[Amimnoch]

8. Good for her! This whole BS driven notion is ridiculous.

If it's legal sources then it should be tapped.

Ridiculous to restrict our candidates fundraising efforts when it will be so grossly abused by the tRumpublicon opposition.

The 4x SCOTUS judges that decided against Citizens United were all appointed by Democratic Party elected Presidents that did not restrict their own campaign financing.. Indicating that just because candidates/elected/appointed officials tap these support sources provided a conflict of interest.

Anyone who really believes that candidates/politicians are automatically "bought off" just because of contributions made to them comes from larger money sources should really reflect and evaluate their own ethical standards and stop projecting.

The only important question on this issue is.. If the Democratic Party secures a majority in the Senate, and holds the house, and if that majority manages to pass campaign reform legislation.. will the Democratic Party candidate sign it off or veto it?

I don't feel we have any candidates that would commit political suicide and veto any such bill. Not a 1. I do feel every tRumpublicon will do everything they possibly can to kill such a bill. There are a few of our Senators and Reps that I question if they would support.

This is a topic that matters most with our Rep's and Senators running, much less so with the POTUS candidates.

[Desert Dem]

9. Come on...

Enough of this 2016 shit.

[aikoaiko]

10. Glad to hear she turned the corner now and not just make an empty promise.

[loyalsister]

11. The Rayburn test

Who is willing to drink their booze, take their money, and vote against them.

[brooklynite]

12. No....Jesse Unruh, California House Speaker 1961-1969

"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, screw their women, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being up here."

[Doremus]

13. Let's hope we vote in a progressive who wants to reform election laws.

If we capture the Senate and have a progressive president, we can do stuff like that.

Old school incrementalism, not so much.

[DrFunkenstein]

15. 8 Ways She Supports Finance Reform and 7 Ways She Supports Election Reform

1. No PAC donations of any kind (link)
2. No federal lobbyist donations (link)
3. No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge (link)
3. Rejects super PAC support (link)
4. Opposes self-funding (link)
5. Overturn Citizens United (link)
6. Swore off “big-money fundraisers” (link)
7. Supports extending public campaign financing to congressional candidates (link)
8. Supports expansion of presidential public campaign finance program (link)

Warren has adopted perhaps the most aggressive anti-big money stance of all candidates, even saying she won’t host any “fancy receptions or big money fundraisers” as a way of treating every donor equally, regardless of the size of their donations. She also shut down her joint fundraising committee, saying that candidates shouldn’t be fundraising from PACs at all.

https://readsludge.com/2019/04/01/where-the-2020-candidates-stand-on-campaign-finance/#warren

1. New federal voting machines (and ballots)
For the sake of both voting security and accessibility, Warren’s plans calls for old, paperless voting machines to be replaced by federally standardized equipment and hand-marked paper ballots. The Bay State senator says the new class of technology — paid for by the federal government — is particularly needed given Russian cyberattacks (some successful) on voting systems in 39 states in 2016.

“Right now some jurisdictions use dated machines that are easily hackable with no paper trail,” she wrote Tuesday. “Ballot design is all over the place. No more. The federal government will replace every voting machine in the country with state-of-the-art equipment and require adoption of a uniform federal ballot.”

Warren says the uniform ballots would be based on “easy-to-use design principles.” The federal government would also provide every polling location with handicap-accessible voting machines

2. Expanded voter registration
Warren’s plan would mandate states to adopt both same-day and automatic voter registration for federal elections.

As of this year, 16 states and Washington, D.C. allow voters to register on Election Day (otherwise known as same-day registration), while 17 states and Washington, D.C. are expected to have some form of automatic voter registration in place by the 2020 election.

Typically, in states with automatic voter registration, eligible voters are automatically registered after they interact with the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (such as when they renew their license). They can then choose to opt out. Warren’s plan would apply the same model to interactions with federal agencies.

According to Warren, the reason her plan also requires states to offer same-day registration as well is to provide a “fail-safe for anyone who is mistakenly left off the rolls.”

3. Make Election Day a national holiday
Most countries around the world hold national elections on the weekend, so that voting doesn’t conflict with most citizens’ work. But since federal elections in the United States are held on a weekday, Warren wants that second Tuesday in November to be a national holiday “to make it easier for people to get to the polls.”

Republican leaders have characterized such proposals as an attempted “power grab” by Democrats, but the concept isn’t controversial among the 2020 field. Nearly every single contender in the Democratic presidential primary supports making Election Day a public holiday.

4. Expand early voting to all states
Currently, 39 states currently offer some form of early voting or mail-in voting; Warren wants to make that number 50. Under her plan, states would be required to offer 15 days of early voting for federal elections, as well as expanded hours and the option to mail in one’s ballot.

“Early voting and vote by mail is necessary so no one has to choose between a paycheck or exercising their right to vote,” Warren told the Washington Post earlier this year.

5. No more voter purges
Warren’s plan also includes a slate of ideas to address racially discriminatory practices to restrict voting. That includes a ban on voter purges, in which states look to “clean up” voter rolls by deleting names from their registration lists.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, there has been a substantial increase in voter purges over the last decade, particularly since a Supreme Court ruling in 2013 that struck down part of the Voting Rights Act. According to a study by the nonpartisan think tank, many of the purges have been based on flawed methodology and threaten to disproportionately disenfranchise minority voters.

Warren says states would be banned from removing names from voter registration lists unless the individual requests to be removed or if “objective evidence” is provided that they have died, changed their address, or otherwise lost their eligibility to vote.

Warren also said her plan would grant convicts the right to vote — but only after they have served their time in prison.

6. Independent redistricting
With the Supreme Court slated to rule on two partisan gerrymandering cases and another round of redistricting looming after 2020, Warren would require states to use independent commissions when redrawing their congressional maps.

“Both parties should compete on a level playing field; not in a rigged game designed to suppress the will of the people,” she said.

Warren’s plan didn’t get into the specifics of what the commissions would look like. Seven states currently have various forms of independent panels primarily tasked with drawing congressional districts, ranging from five to 14 bipartisan members, appointed by state lawmakers or judges.

7. The creation of a new federal agency
How would all of those reforms be implemented — especially in a nation where elections across the country are administered by a mishmash of state, county, and municipal governments?

Warren’s plan would create a new federal agency, dubbed the “Secure Democracy Administration,” to replace the Election Assistance Commission, which was created in 2002 to help states comply with voting reforms at the time.

The new independent agency would be charged with managing and developing new cybersecurity measures, which states would be required to implement — with technical assistance and training from the SDA. States would also be required to run post-election risk-limiting audits before certifying results. Currently, only 34 states have any sort of audit to ensure the accuracy of their elections.

The SDA would also make sure that states are following the new, mandatory standards and incentivize them to implement those principles in state and local elections.

https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2019/06/25/elizabeth-warren-election-plan

[Trenzalore]

16. She seems to be doing fine now without them

A lot of politicians for the most part hate these things. If you can fundraise without having to do them it is awesome.

[BlueMississippi]

17. k&r nt