Billionaires like Sheldon Adelson are getting all the love and sucking up from Republican presidential candidates right now.
Rising inequality and lax campaign finance laws are combining to make a bunch of millionaire Republicans feel sorry for themselves because the presidential candidates are passing them over for billionaire Republicans. Or, as the
Washington Post headline has it,
"In 2016 campaign, the lament of the not quite rich enough."
See, these not quite rich enough millionaires can't just write a seven-figure check to a candidate's super PAC. All they can do is give thousands of dollars themselves and bundle a hundred of thousands more in regular old campaign contributions, which have a $2,700 limit. As a result they're feeling a little left out this cycle:
“They are only going to people who are multi-multi-millionaires and billionaires and raising big money first,” said Neese, who founded a successful employment agency. “Most of the people I talk to are kind of rolling their eyes and saying, ‘You know, we just don’t count anymore.’ ” [...]
One longtime bundler recently fielded a call from a dispirited executive on his yacht, who complained, “We just don’t count anymore.”
Campaign finance laws are the reason candidates are "raising big money first"—as long as a politician is "exploring" a run for president (by staffing up and making regular trips to New Hampshire and Iowa to do what looks like campaigning), he can fundraise for his super PAC, which can accept unlimited contributions. Once officially in the race, the big-money candidates like Jeb Bush will be a little more constrained as to how directly they can ask billionaires for million-dollar checks. Then, the bundlers who are now so unhappy will have their moment, basking in the attention that they naturally feel they deserve as rich people, without so many uncomfortable reminders that they are only regular millionaires, practically poverty-stricken by the standards of today's politics.