I’ve seen a lot of controversy today over Joint Financing Agreements between the DNC and 2016 Democratic candidate campaigns after Politico published an excerpt of Donna Brazile’s upcoming book. A few things have been widely noted, others less so; I have a timeline below.
I submit Brazile’s excerpt about Clinton campaign control over the DNC is very likely in reference to an updated 2016 agreement entered after Clinton won the primary election. All signs are that the 2015 agreement had no provisions that gave the Clinton campaign unusual control over the DNC, and this is supported by supposed document leaks from last year.
- News articles in August 2015 reported on the HFA JFA
www.politico.com/…
www.washingtonpost.com/…
No reference to provisions by which the Clinton campaign had control over DNC messaging or staffing
- The Bernie campaign signed a JFA in November 2015
www.politico.com/…
At various points described as the same or similar
- The chief purpose of the agreements is to facilitate personal donations to the greater cause of the campaign in excess of limits on donation to a single entity through a loophole the Supreme Court opened in McCutcheon vs FEC striking down aggregate donation limits. Portions of funds must be segregated and reserved for the general campaign, whoever is the winner
- This basic pattern disadvantaged Sanders over Clinton to the extent his campaign had far fewer large donors to take advantage of the arrangement
- Starting in April 2016, the Sanders campaign loudly complained about the financing provisions of the HFA JFA. It did fundraise from small donors with this line
www.politico.com/…
www.msnbc.com/…
berniesanders.com/…
berniesanders.com/…
- More complaints about the fundraising in May 2016
www.politico.com/…
berniesanders.com/…
- I have not found that any actual violation was ever sustained. Our campaign finance laws are terrible after the Supreme Court gutted controls
- Later in the year, a purported dump of John Podesta’s emails includes an unexecuted JFA with no language about control
- Clinton delegate count guarantees victory by June 7, 2016, widely reported
- On Jun 9, CNN reports talks on a new JFA to start using funds for the general
www.cnn.com/...
“Hillary Clinton, in an effort to entirely turn her focus to the general election, will begin raising money for the general election and Democratic National Convention on Wednesday by filing paperwork on a new joint fundraising agreement with the Democratic Party, according to a spokesman.”
- On Jun 16, CNN reports HFA has taken control of party
www.cnn.com/…
”Hillary Clinton's campaign is taking the reins of the Democratic National Committee, installing a new top official on Thursday to oversee the party's day-to-day operations through the general election….
Robby Mook, the Clinton campaign manager, arrived Thursday morning at Democratic headquarters on Capitol Hill to introduce Davis to the party's staff.”
- DNC gears up to plan the convention, which takes place July 25-28, 2016
- DWS resigns DNC post on eve of convention, July 24, 2016
- Donna Brazile is elevated to intirim chair at start of convention
- Convention duly nominates Hillary Clinton as Democratic Party Candidate
- Brazile thereafter begins conversations about DNC finances as recounted in her book excerpt, starting July 30, 2016
”On the phone Gary told me the DNC had needed a $2 million loan, which the campaign had arranged.”
”He described the party as fully under the control of Hillary’s campaign, which seemed to confirm the suspicions of the Bernie camp.”
- Party appartus completely in control of nominee’s campaign seems historically the norm and was also reported for the Republican side by this time
- Brazile explicitly states not mad at Clinton side but at DWS
“When we hung up, I was livid. Not at Gary, but at this mess I had inherited. I knew that Debbie had outsourced a lot of the management of the party and had not been the greatest at fundraising. I would not be that kind of chair, even if I was only an interim chair.”
- Brazile seems to have found JFA at some point after, unfortunately vague about time frame
”When I got back from a vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, I at last found the document that described it all: the Joint Fund-Raising Agreement between the DNC, the Hillary Victory Fund, and Hillary for America.
The agreement—signed by Amy Dacey, the former CEO of the DNC, and Robby Mook with a copy to Marc Elias—specified that in exchange for raising money and investing in the DNC, Hillary would control the party’s finances, strategy, and all the money raised. Her campaign had the right of refusal of who would be the party communications director, and it would make final decisions on all the other staff. The DNC also was required to consult with the campaign about all other staffing, budgeting, data, analytics, and mailings.”
Go through it yourself and see if you don’t agree it’s a wild jump to conclude that the Clinton campaign controlled the DNC before she was the clear primary winner in 2016. I would love if more of the primary documents became available for us to learn more. We aren’t hearing many clarifications yet.
Note that Armando has been doing a lot of work to chase this on Twitter.