b*****d
发帖数: 61690 | 1 Democratic donors stung by Hillary Clinton’s upset loss in the presidential
race feel like they just set their money on fire.
The sore feelings are a huge problem for the Democratic National Committee (
DNC), which is trying to rebuild its image and reinvigorate a defeated party
in time for challenging midterm elections in 2018.
It’s also a worry for top liberal activists as they prepare for war with
President-elect Donald Trump and a GOP Congress that is hell-bent on rolling
back President Obama’s accomplishments.
Many Democratic donors still feel burned by the party’s 2016 election
losses and what they see as dysfunction in the DNC, which will elect a new
leader in February.
Adding insult to the injury: The names of many donors were released in the
WikiLeaks hack of Democratic emails, believed to have come at the hands of
Russian intelligence. It was a mortifying development that has rattled some
of the party’s big-money men and women.
“They’re tired,” one DNC official told The Hill. “They’re upset about
the election, and there was significant trauma surrounding the Russians.
They’re upset and they’re tired.”
Democratic investors went in on Clinton to the tune of more than $550
million, believing she would dispatch Trump, deliver Democrats the Senate
and help the party make inroads into the GOP’s House majority.
Many liberal donors also viewed the election as an opportunity to cement
Obama’s legacy.
Instead, Democrats find themselves in the throes of a full-scale and
expensive rebuilding project punctuated by a rudderless DNC that won’t
elect a new leader until more than a month after Trump is sworn into office.
Investor Marc Nathanson, who spent big in 2016, says he has no interest in
participating in the party’s rebuilding efforts.
Nathanson, who was one of Clinton’s top donors and fundraisers in 2016,
told The Hill he’d continue to give money and support to Democratic
candidates in gubernatorial and mayoral races in his home state of
California. But beyond that, the frustration over the party’s 2016 debacle
will keep him on the sidelines.
“The feeling I get from big donors out here in California is that they’re
not only extremely disappointed, but they’re shell-shocked,” he said. “So
to turn around and say, now it’s time to rebuild the national party and
the DNC, I just don’t see it.”
Some Democrats believe the fundraising panic is being overblown, arguing
that in Trump, the party has a fearsome boogeyman that will keep horrified
donors in a giving mood.
They’re optimistic that jilted donors will change their tune once the DNC
elects a new leader and as the midterm elections near. Democrats face a
daunting map in 2018, when they’ll be defending 25 of the 46 seats they
currently hold in the Senate. A filibuster-proof majority is within reach
for Republicans.
But even those events won’t be enough to get some angry donors back in the
game.
“I may very well be done with political giving entirely,” said John Morgan
, an Orlando attorney and one of Clinton’s top fundraisers in Florida. “My
message to anyone reading this is, ‘Don’t call me, I’ll call you.’ From
here on out, I’m giving to charities. I’d much rather give money to build
a new Boys & Girls Club than to give to the [Democratic Senatorial Campaign
Committee].”
Outside of the DNC and its congressional campaign arms, top liberal
fundraisers are painting a rosier picture of donors who have been jolted
into action by November’s stunning results. | a*******r
发帖数: 641 | 2 they can try to get some back from her private account. |
|
