Jeb Bush
Want to be a donor Jeb Bush actually cares about? No piddling one percenters need apply at this Super PAC-driven stage of the not-yet-official campaign. It takes a 0.1 percenter's money
to matter to Jeb these days, and the people giving what was seen as good money as recently as 2012 are being downgraded:
The concern comes from the kind of donors or lobbyists willing to write a mid-sized check -- about $5,000 to $15,000 -- with the expectation of getting a phone call from the candidate or a little face time at an event. That interaction provides bragging rights; it also gives supporters a chance to lobby, even if only for a minute, for their pet cause.
That kind of money got you dinner and a Mitt Romney handshake in 2012. These days, not so much:
Last month, Bush’s campaign held a breakfast fundraiser in Florida that required $250,000 simply to get in the door, said one Republican strategist who has worked on multiple presidential campaigns. The strategist said that some attendees who normally attend GOP campaign events balked. One invitee joked about the high cost of entrance, said the strategist, asking, “Can I do coffee?”
A pair of March fundraisers for Bush -- one that included his former president father and another that included his former president brother -- required couples to raise $100,000 to attend. Jeb Bush also held a Wall Street fundraiser in February, which demanded an “eye-popping” $100,000 per ticket.
These complaints have been surfacing for at least the past month, as Bush tries to
build his base of $1 million donors. At some point, once he has an official campaign that can only collect limited contributions, maybe run-of-the-mill rich people and their $5,000 checks will matter to him, and he'll give those donors the attention they're currently fretting about not getting. Then again,
maybe not. If Bush has his Super PAC take over big chunks of traditional campaign responsibilities, he may be able to continue ignoring your low-level millionaires and truly be a candidate of the $100 million-and-up club.