I just got a fundraising letter from the Clinton Campaign. It started out unsurprisingly, with an ask to help retire Clinton’s campaign debt. But then I didn’t really get what was going on in this paragraph:
Additionally to defeat Senator McCain and return the White House to the Democrats, Senator Obama will need significant resources to execute a successful campaign plan. Hillary will be doing all she can to help Senator Obama win in November and we hope you join her in this endeavor. Please let us know if you are involved in any of the upcoming DNC or Obama for America fundraising events, so we can help one another and maximize our resources. Whether you are contributing an additional $1,000, $500, $250 or whatever you feel comfortable with, your support would be deeply appreciated. The maximum that can be contributed towards this effort is $2,300 and that includes what you have previously contributed to Hillary Clinton for President primary fund.
First, after saying Obama will need significant resources, it doesn’t actually ask anyone to donate to Obama’s campaign, as far as I can tell. Second, what is the point of asking people to “let them know” if they are involved in Obama or DNC fundraising events? Does this help the Obama campaign in any way?
I’m not suggesting anything sketchy is going on; I just really don’t understand the point of that paragraph. Can anyone enlighten me?
but I think she just wants to be able to take credit for getting her supporters to give to Obama, the way everyone who bundles money does. Before Obama broke all fundraising records Hillary was considered a champion fundraiser (and she still is) and part of your power in Washington is your ability to raise money.
In Hillary’s world that used to mean physically collecting checks and delivering them to the other campaign. But now we’re in the internet age and you can’t collect on-line donations.
The Clinton campaign didn’t get into heavy duty internet fundraising until late in the campaign and I think this is just evidence that they aren’t completely up-to-date on the ways to do internet fundraising and get credit for it. What she should have done is set up an ActBlue page and asked everyone to contribute through that – that’s how people bundle on the internet. (That’s why I don’t give through those pages. I give directly to campaigns so no one is getting credit for bundling my money, but that’s another thought entirely.)
The last sentence is telling her supporters that you aren’t limited to an overall dollar amount – you are limited to a dollar amount per candidate. This seems unnecessary but maybe she thinks her supporters are too dumb to figure that out.