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Bernie Redirects Donation From Martin Shkreli:
Readers might remember Martin Shkreli as the guy who inflated the price of Daraprim, a drug that treats toxoplasmosis and helps prevent malaria, by 4,000 percent. He’s known most often on social media as “screw that guy
Big pharma super-villain and CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, Shkreli, tweeted during the democratic debate that he was responsible for a donation made to Bernie Sanders’ campaign.
According to what Bernie Sanders has been saying all throughout his campaign, Martin Shkreli is all the things he hates about pharmaceutical companies.
“We are not keeping the money from this poster boy for drug company greed,” Michael Briggs, a spokesman for Bernie Sanders, said.
Instead of taking Shkreli’s money, Sanders’ team will be donating the whole amount to the Whitman-Walker health clinic located in Washington, D.C. The community health center specializes in HIV/AIDS care and offers safe and understanding treatment for the LGBT community.
Bernie Erases The Money Disadvantage:
Bernie Sanders is slowly erasing Hillary Clinton's hard money advantage.
Clinton finished the summer fundraising quarter with $33 million in the bank, according to a new filing with the Federal Election Commission. She raised $28.8 million in that July-through-September period for the Democratic primary and spent $25.8 million of it.
But while Clinton has more than any other candidate, Sanders is catching up. He ended the quarter with $27.1 million cash on hand. He raised $26.2 million and spent $11.3 million.
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Not showing up on the report are the 97,800 donations worth a total of $3.2 million that Sanders' campaign said have come in since Tuesday night's Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas.
Sanders has now received donations from 650,000 people -- only 270 of whom have given the maximum allowed $2,700. The average donation was $30.
Bernie Gets Personal For Charity:
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), known for keeping personal details about himself private, opened up in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres that aired Thursday.
The Democratic presidential candidate shared whether he wears boxers or briefs, which GOP candidate he would prefer to be deserted on an island with, and whether he's ever been in handcuffs.
"I don't exactly what you mean by that," Sanders responded to the latter question. "I take it to mean, was I ever arrested by the police?"
"Well, no, not necessarily," DeGeneres quipped.
Bernie Raises 3.2 Million In 3 Days:
According to the Sanders campaign:
And in a remarkable turn of events, there has been a record surge in online donations this week. More than 97,800 contributions poured in totaling some $3.2 million since Tuesday, when the first Democratic debate was held in Las Vegas, through mid-afternoon on Thursday. The average donation $32.28.
Also on the day after the debate, Sanders attracted 1,100 people to a $25-per-person fundraiser and rally on Wednesday in Southern California. It was only the eighth traditional fundraiser of his campaign. A ninth event was held that same evening with tickets going for $250 and up.
For the sake of comparison, the Hillary Clinton campaign has raised $5 million from people giving less than $200 in the last four months.
The fact that Sanders donors give a smaller amount per person means that the campaign can ask donors to give multiple times without risking them maxing out and hitting the per person donation limit.
No matter who the experts and supporters think won the debate, it is clear that Bernie Sanders supporters have been energized by the debate.
Some More On The Fundraising Numbers:
Presidential campaigns released their fundraising totals for the third quarter of 2015 on Thursday. The results included a few surprises, as the pace of the 2016 presidential primary gets ready to pick up in the fall. Most notable were the stunning take from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the surprisingly low-budget campaign of Donald Trump and the continuing financial advantage that top Democratic candidates had over their Republican rivals.
The two Democratic frontrunners, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, each out-raised all of their Republican rivals. Clinton raised $29.4m, edging Sanders who had $26.2m. Both far outpaced Ben Carson, the top GOP fundraiser at $20.8m, in the past quarter and were even further ahead of other top Republicans as well.
Unsurprisingly the two Democratic candidates raised this in entirely different ways. An eye-popping 77% of Sanders’ contributions come from small donors and the frugal socialist’s campaign ended the quarter with $27.1m cash on hand. Sanders had more than 650,000 donors of whom only 270 have given the maximum amount of $2,700. Further, his campaign said it was keeping up its frenetic fundraising pace. Sanders has received 97,800 contributions totaling some $3.2m since the first Democratic debate on Tuesday.
The only candidate to end with more cash available than Sanders was Clinton, who had nearly $33m available. However the former secretary of state relied heavily on high-dollar donations with more than 80% of her donors giving over $200, the reverse of the ratio for Sanders.
Sanders Steals Some Hollywood Support:
Two former Hillary Clinton donors hosted a fundraiser for her 2016 competitor Bernie Sanders at their estate in Los Angeles Wednesday evening.
Syd Leibovitch, a real estate agent, and his wife, Linda, welcomed 300 supporters of the independent Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate to their Beverly Hills home for an event that raised approximately $150,000 for Sanders, according to Variety.
The event took place the night after Sanders competed against Clinton in the first Democratic presidential primary debate in Las Vegas.
Goth Syd and Linda Leibovich previously supported Hillary Clinton for president and U.S. Senate. Syd donated $1,000 to Hillary Clinton for President in 2007, according to Federal Election Commission records. He also contributed $1,000 to Clinton’s campaign for New York Senate in 2000.
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“Please join me in supporting Bernie. I believe that every American has a responsibility to participate in our democracy and that’s why I’m supporting Bernie Sanders,” Linda said in a message about the fundraiser.
“He has consistently stood up against big money in politics and has been unwavering in his commitment to working people. Healthcare, education, clean water and air—these are but a few of our inalienable rights as Americans and rights that Bernie has consistently fought for.”
How Bernie Is Making Dems Play Nice:
“If I were standing here tonight and making some vicious attack against Hillary Clinton or anybody else, it’d be a front-page story,” Sanders said Wednesday after his taping with DeGeneres at a campaign rally in California. “But if we talk about why the middle class is disappearing and almost all the income and wealth is going to the top 1 percent – not a big story.”
Sanders’s policy-first approach is clearly not a recipe for attracting media coverage. Although the Democratic candidate has witnessed serious success in the polls, he has often been the victim of a media blackout. Earlier this month, The Christian Science Monitor reported that Sanders had only been given a total of eight minutes on network news (about 1.5 percent of the minutes devoted thus far to the presidential race).
But Sanders has not swerved from his determination to keep the issues he cares about front and center. “What the political revolution is, is forcing a debate,” Sanders said in Beverly Hills Wednesday. “Not about trivial, but the real issues.”
And in this respect, Sen. Sanders may be defining the entire Democratic presidential race.
Just For Fun:
While candidates are often judged by their experience or showmanship, few are ever evaluated based on their voices. But maybe they should be, according to a recent study published in PLoS. Scientists asked 800 participants to listen to different speakers repeat the line, “I urge you to vote for me this November” and found that voters prefer politicians with deeper voices. Vocativ then ran a voice analysis of each Republican candidate during the first debate and, among other things, concluded that Trump is probably too squeaky to win.
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Noteworthy: Internet darling Bernie Sanders has the deepest timbre of any candidate both on the Republican and Democratic sides, at an average pitch of 133 Hz. In our prior analysis, John Kasich was the only one who even came close, at a paltry 147 Hz. It appears nobody can growl deeper than The Bern
Post Debate Outreach Is Already Happening:
Sanders’ campaign also said his talk about reforming the criminal justice system helped appeal to crucial voting blocs outside his base of white, young college-educated voters. “We made inroads with African Americans last night,” Devine said. “This is the first time Bernie Sanders showed up last night in front of important constituents. Some of the first words he said were Black Lives Matter.”
"The reason those words matter," Sanders said during the debate, "is the African American community knows that on any given day some innocent person like Sandra Bland can get into a car and three days later she can up dead in jail...we need to combat institutional racism from top to bottom, and we need major, major reforms in a broken criminal justice system."
Post-debate outreach is already happening on the ground in Iowa, where Rev. Frantz Whitfield -- an African American minister who supported Clinton in 2007 and hosted her at the Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Waterloo -- has switched allegiances and is now trying to bring black voters to Sanders.
“Hearing him say Black Lives Matter in the debate got a lot of people’s attention,” Whitfield said. “We’re talking about getting Bernie to the church -- one of my main focuses is to get his name out in the African American community, and now it’s going to take us knocking on doors.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/...
When Bernie Promised To Say Her Name:
“Hello, I’m sorry, are you Mr. Sanders?” I asked.
“I am,” he replied.
“Well, I’m just over there having dinner with the mother of Sandra Bland and I thought maybe you’d like to meet her.”
“Yes, please,” he replied.
I got up to walk back towards our table only to see that Shante, Sandra’s oldest sister, was already headed towards me. She is a woman who knows how to get things accomplished, so I was not surprised to see her coming after me to see if I needed support.
Bringing Ms. Geneva back over to the table, I felt my body trembling. The trembling continued as Ms. Geneva sat down next to Senator Sanders and they began to talk. I was not trembling out of fear or out of being star-struck, it was more that I was completely blown away by the unexpectedness of it all, the sacredness of the moment, and the sincerity of all involved. You do not often get to witness moments like that. Moments when agendas are laid aside and people who might not otherwise ever have the chance to connect without cameras watching can simply honor one another’s pain and humanity.
“What happened to your daughter is inexcusable,” he said. “We are broken, and this has exposed us.” He then continued by promising that he would continue to #SayHerName #SandraBland and would not give up in the pursuit of justice.