Small dollar donors are make or break in modern politics. Where the small dollar donations go, so does the grass roots enthusiasm.
Especially influential in primaries where you can become the candidate with maybe 5-10% of the popular vote.
This is the breakdown in Trumps funding for the 2020 campaign
No doubt both are import, but it is the big boys that get you over the line.
This is Bidens
Actually pretty disgraceful that US$2 billion is sent on trying to win the race to be POTUS by the two main candidates.
4 Likes
A small dollar donator is almost certainly going to vote in a primary.
If Trump receives most of the small donations, he also has a very powerful marketing network. All those high likelihood voters are engaged with Trump and reading his propaganda. Trump will bombard that mailing list with his preferred candidates.
In primary races where the most votes wins, a Trump supported candidate can win with 30% of the vote against a split field.
Trump’s fanatical following and shepherding of donators will make a huge difference. Large donors will have to spend a massive amount to compete with Trump’s targeted advocacy of candidates.
Large dollars will have a bigger effect on the general election.
1 Like
This is the key factor here. Republicans are gung-ho about their electoral goals. Democrats, at least the establishment Democrats, give off the impression that they’ll only very reluctantly make any concessions to the left. @Ants is absolutely right about the necessity to play the game to achieve change, even if its incremental. However I just don’t see the passion required from the Dems to get these measures passed even before a $25 minimum wage is required.
I’ve said in this topic before, it’s just not good enough to shrug your shoulders and say “oh well, the other side played the game better,” particularly when that other side is trying to subvert your democratic institutions. This is especially true when the Dems, almost by default, start making concessions before the negotiations have even begun.
A Democratic party that finally asserts itself, like a majority of Americans want it to do, can make some meaningful change. The current iteration, which sees making friends with a GOP that has made it clear over and over again it doesn’t want to, cannot.
3 Likes
8 Likes
Please be true.
But somehow they are never able to nail this bloke, so not expecting much.
2 Likes
I’d rather he hung around for a few more years to truly **** the GOP once and for all.
3 Likes
Maybe Trump’s tax returns can be used to encourage change?
NYT comment:
In February, the I.R.S. commissioner, Charles P. Rettig, told Congress that about $570 billion in taxes owed in 2019 were not paid. That tax gap is projected to total about $7.5 trillion over this decade. Meanwhile, the I.R.S. answered fewer than a quarter of its phone calls from people seeking help with their taxes.
1 Like
Spending on the IRS returns something like $4 for every $1 spent. But it has had its budget slashed for decades.
It now has an ageing workforce approaching retirement and effectively no young or middle aged staff to step into their shoes. They are the Hawthorn of government departments.
1 Like
He has got to go.
Gov. Cuomo Is Accused of Groping Aide at Executive Mansion
Gov. Andrew Cuomo characterized the new allegations as “gut-wrenching,” but insisted that he has “never done anything like this.”
March 10, 2021, 8:07 p.m. ET
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has now been accused by six women of sexual harassment or inappropriate behavior.Hans Pennink/Associated Press
An aide to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo who had accused the governor of improper behavior said that Mr. Cuomo had groped her in the Executive Mansion, according to new details of her account reported by The Times Union of Albany.
The aide, who was not identified by the newspaper, said she was summoned to the governor’s private residence last year to assist Mr. Cuomo with a technical issue when, alone on the second floor, the governor closed the door, reached under her blouse and began touching her, the newspaper said.
The new details of the account, which were reported on Wednesday, involve the most sexually aggressive allegation yet. The woman was the sixth person to accuse the governor of sexual harassment or inappropriate behavior.
The newspaper reported on Tuesday that the allegation had been forwarded to the state attorney general, which is overseeing an inquiry into sexual harassment claims against the governor.
Mr. Cuomo on Wednesday denied the woman’s account, reiterating his assertion that he had never touched anyone inappropriately.
“As I said yesterday, I have never done anything like this,” Mr. Cuomo said in a statement. “The details of this report are gut-wrenching. I am not going to speak to the specifics of this or any other allegation given the ongoing review, but I am confident in the result of the attorney general’s report.”
The newspaper had initially reported that a supervisor in the governor’s office had become aware of the possible inappropriate conduct.
On Wednesday, the newspaper offered additional details, saying that the supervisor, a woman, noticed that the aide had become emotional as she watched Mr. Cuomo give a televised apology on March 3 in response to multiple allegations, but still denied touching anyone inappropriately.
The aide then told the supervisor about what she described as inappropriate encounters with Mr. Cuomo, the report said. The aide, who is younger than Mr. Cuomo, has also accused the governor of flirting with her and touching her on previous occasions, according to the report.
The aide never filed a formal complaint about the encounter; the governor’s counsel learned about the allegation earlier this week from other employees in the office, according to The Times Union.
The newspaper has based its reporting on an anonymous source with knowledge of the allegation.
The new allegation is certain to aggravate the most tumultuous crisis of Mr. Cuomo’s political career. The governor is facing intense scrutiny of his conduct toward women and is under escalating pressure to resign after two former aides, Lindsey Boylan and Charlotte Bennett, accused him last month of sexually harassing them.
Ms. Boylan, who is running for Manhattan borough president, published an essay on Feb. 24 outlining a series of unsettling experiences with Mr. Cuomo, including a time in which she said he kissed her on the lips without her consent after a private meeting in his New York City office in 2018. Mr. Cuomo’s office has denied the allegations.
Shortly after, Ms. Bennett told The New York Times that Mr. Cuomo, 63, made sexual overtures during a one-on-one meeting in his State Capitol office in June amid the pandemic. Ms. Bennet, now 25, said the governor asked her whether she had sex with older men and whether she had intimacy issues because of her experience as a sexual assault survivor.
Disturbed by the remarks, Ms. Bennett told the governor’s chief of staff about the encounter and provided a lengthy statement to a special counsel to the governor. She was transferred to another job farther away from the governor’s office before quitting in November.
The allegations — and those of other women who have since described other inappropriate conduct from the governor — have rocked Albany, leading a growing number of Democrats to join Republicans in calling for the governor to be impeached or to step down. On Sunday, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the majority leader in the State Senate, became the most powerful Democrat in the state to call on Mr. Cuomo to resign, leading many others in her conference to follow suit.
The governor, a third-term Democrat, has apologized for workplace remarks that he says may have hurt or offended women, insisting he never meant to make anyone feel uncomfortable and never touched anyone inappropriately.
“It was unintentional and I truly and deeply apologize for it,” Mr. Cuomo said during his March 3 apology. “I feel awful about it and frankly, I’m embarrassed by it, and that’s not easy to say.”
His repeated apologies have not been enough to quell the political backlash, which has intensified as new allegations emerge and a competing scandal deepens. Last week, The Times reported that top Cuomo officials rewrote a Health Department report in an attempt to cover up the full extent of nursing home deaths during the coronavirus pandemic.
On Tuesday, Assemblyman Richard N. Gottfried, a Democrat and the longest-serving member of the lower chamber, also called on the governor to resign.
“Multiple and growing credible allegations of sexual harassment and recent reports detailing the cover-up of the true Covid-19 death toll in nursing homes are extremely disturbing and make it clear that Governor Cuomo is no longer the right governor for New York,” said Mr. Gottfried, who was first elected in 1971 and has served under eight governors.
Most Democrats, however, have been hesitant to call on Mr. Cuomo to step down, saying that they support the state attorney general investigation into the allegations. Among them is Nita Lowey, the former longtime congresswoman from the Hudson Valley who said in a statement earlier on Wednesday that she was “saddened that recent accusations of misconduct toward women have led to calls for the governor to resign or be impeached.”
“I believe that these charges deserve to be heard,” said Ms. Lowey, who retired in January. “Attorney General Letitia James has appointed two outstanding attorneys to conduct an independent investigation. At least until they have reported their conclusions, the governor should remain in office.”
Luis Ferré-Sadurní covers New York State politics in Albany. He joined The Times in 2017 and previously wrote about housing for the Metro desk. He is originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico. @luisferre
Jesse McKinley is the Albany bureau chief. He was previously the San Francisco bureau chief, and a theater columnist and Broadway reporter for the Culture desk. @jessemckinley
We’re almost at the point where politicians should be forced to wear body cameras all the time to try and keep them from doing this crap.
Fark me. I thought this was fake. It isn’t.
1 Like
Tossers’ gunna toss … 
1 Like
Donny doesn’t realize that AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines were developed outside of the US? Sure they tipped in some money for pre-orders, but so did everyone else!
2 Likes
Kinda odd, since the majority of his hard core base are anti-vax at worse, or care nought for covid or the ramifications of it at best. So who is he trying to appeal to with vaccine angle now?
relevance deprivation syndrome
2 Likes
More “Suck as much money out of the fools I already sucked in before I go to Jail Syndrome”.
(mnb a medically recognised syndrome)
1 Like
Here is a list of a dozen vaccines developed around the world.
Lucky the world had Trump Lame Duck 45 in this time of global crisis.
| eveloper | Country | Clinical phase | Efficacy | Doses | Approved in at least one country | Approved in United States |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CanSino | China | 3 | 66% | 1 | Yes | |
| Sinopharm (Beijing) | China | 3 | 79% | 2 | Yes | |
| Sinopharm (Wuhan) | China | 3 | Yes | |||
| Sinovac | China | 3 | 50% | 2 | Yes | |
| Bharat | India | 3 | 2 | Yes | ||
| Gamaleya | Russia | 3 | 92% | 2 | Yes | |
| Vector Institute | Russia | 3 | 2 | Yes | ||
| Oxford-AstraZeneca | United Kingdom, Sweden | 2 and 3 | 62%–90% | 2 | Yes | |
| Pfizer-BioNTech | United States, Germany | 2 and 3 | 95% | 2 | Yes | Yes |
| Johnson & Johnson | United States | 3 | 61%–72% | 1 | Yes | Yes |
| Moderna | United States | 3 | 95% | 2 | Yes | Yes |
| Novavax | United States | 3 | 89% | 2 |
2 Likes