Bush, Clinton are Wall Street’s Favorites, Donations Show

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Jeb Bush, whose early fundraising proficiency quickly became a defining feature of his campaign for president, collected contributions at a drastically slower pace during the third quarter of the year, bringing in $13.38 million between July and September.

The risk of the big-money approach was underscored by the modest $13.4million raised over the summer by former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who earlier this year was expected to be a financial powerhouse. Ted Cruz (Texas), with $12.2 million; former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, with $6.8 million; and Sen.

Donald Trump, the billionaire real estate mogul and dominating front-runner, has said he’s self-financing his campaign with his own money and only accepting small checks from individuals.

Fred Zeidman, a veteran Bush bundler in Texas, said the campaign is tightening its belt. She took in almost $84,000 from employees of the same banks.

Carson spent most of that money raising money. “And I think the establishment has run out of a little steam”.

“This far exceeds the level of transparency offered by other candidates in the field”, campaign spokeswoman Allie Brandenburger said, “above and beyond the disclosure requirements”.

So that was it: Rubio raised $6 million. Bush also reported a few debt.

Bush’s figure excludes $270,000 in general election money. As Sanders noted in their first debate Tuesday night, his average contribution was just $30. Carson has relied heavily on expensive direct mail and telemarketing consultants to raise money, spending prohibitive sums in the first months of his campaign. “Mr. Trump made a contribution of $100,779 during this quarter and has personally spent $1,909,576 since launching his campaign”, his campaign said.

But Rubio is also getting a boost from a nonprofit group that doesn’t disclose its donors. When the papers were filed, Cruz had raised $12,218,137.71. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal had a burn rate of more than 100 percent after raising $579,438 and spending $832,214.

Much of that Republican edge can be attributed to the inclusion of candidates who declared they were running after the previous fundraising quarter, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former New York Gov. George Pataki, former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who has since dropped out of the race.

“Thanks to smart budgeting and fiscal discipline, Marco Rubio for President started October with more money in the bank than Jeb Bush for President and most other campaigns”, the Rubio campaign said in a statement.

“Over the long haul, I think that’s the lane I’m going to stay in, and I believe I’m going to be effective at doing it. I don’t know about Donald Trump’s views of leadership because he talks about himself the whole time rather than what he would do”, he added.

Kasich’s campaign had not released fundraising details by Thursday afternoon.

While contributors can give a maximum of $2,700 per election to campaigns, they face no such restrictions with super PACs.

These bundlers win coveted access to White House candidates during the campaign and often are rewarded for their efforts with plum posts, such as European and Caribbean ambassadorships, if their candidate prevails.

The insurgents’ rise is likely to make their rivals even more dependent on super PACs and other groups, which have stockpiled huge amounts of cash outside the campaigns.