Presidential Campaign By the Numbers

The NY Times has published a wonk's wet dream, all the presidential campaign finance numbers in one neat place. Thank you NYT.

Burn Rate

Hillary Clinton's campaign (excluding PAC money) has raise more than twice as much donations ($77 mil) as any other candidate. But she is burning through it twice as fast as anyone else. She also has more cash in hand than anyone else but her burn rate is so high she is going to have to keep up prodigious fundraising just to tread water. High spending helped kill Hillary's campaign in 2008 where she started running out of money in February.

Ben Carson has an even faster burn rate. He is second in total spending, almost two-thirds of what he has raise has already been spent. Rumor is most of the money is going to his fundraisers. He is spending money to raise more money so it can be spent raising money to be spent on fundraisers. This is a known scam rookie politicians fall for.

Bernie Sanders is in the best shape on burning cash. With $27 million cash in hand and a low burn rate, Bernie could run his campaign at this level for six months without raising any more cash.

Political Action Committees

Only three candidates, all Republicans, have raised more money from their fat cat sponsors into their PACs than into their own campaigns.

Jeb Bush, leads everyone in the billionaire butt kissing sweepstakes. Nine digits, $108 million, 81% of all the money set to get Bush elected has gone to PACs instead of Bush's own campaign.

Chris Christie's own campaign has raised a measly $4 mil, his PACs have taken in over $14 mil.

Marco Rubio's PACs have also take in more money ($17 mil) than his campaign ($14 mil) but at least it's close.

Bernie Sanders is the only serious candidate (sorry Ben and Donald) with no billionaire PAC auxiliary.

Million Dollar Donors

In buying politicians, nothing says "I own your sorry ass" like investing a million dollars.

Ted Cruz leads the pack. Ninty-five percent of his PAC's $38 million donations have come in seven figure buys.

Marco Rubio's $17 mil in PAC money comes from a handful of million dollar gifts (77%). Marco also is getting $2.5 million in secret donations funneled though Besilu Stables.

Hillary's million dollar buyers are a little less than half her PAC's donor pool.

Jeb's PACs still have room for more donations as only 24% of his donors have gotten into seven figures. Of course, that also means they can save their cash if they decide he is a lost cause.

Little People

At the other end of the spectrum are the small donors, $200 or less. These people are not buying a president but simply supporting someone they believe in.

Bernie Sanders, unsurprisingly, leads the league in this stat. Over 81% of his donors are from regular folk. Only 1% of his supporters have maxed out at $2,700.

Ben Carson, more surprisingly, is also at the 80% level. Who'da thunk?

Hillary's small supporters make up less than 20% of her donor base. Sixty-three percent have already maxed out.

Jeb's small supporters are a microscopic 3% of his backers. Eighty-one percent have maxed out, meaning they are dead weight on his future donor list.