The “money race,” as it’s called, has been raging since the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve and ushered in 2015. So far, it appears Jeb Bush, with his declared intention to explore a candidacy, is raking in serious money, while Hillary Clinton, with her laid back non-committal approach, is not keeping pace.
Report from Politico:
In early November, with her party on the eve of an electoral walloping, Democrat Mary Tetreau had had enough. The Londonderry, New Hampshire activist was sick of the constant emails begging for money for a candidate who wasn’t even running for office yet.
When another plea landed in her inbox the day before the election, she unsubscribed.
“I’m not going to be ready for Hillary until she announces she’s running for president,” said Tetreau, a three-decade veteran of New Hampshire primary politics, who called Ready for Hillary’s early-and-often email approach “annoying.”
Three months later, Hillary Clinton remains officially undeclared, but her campaign-in-waiting’s emails continue to flood inboxes of Democratic activists in early voting states. Though it amounts to little more than a nuisance in the grand scheme of the 2016 election, it does point to a downside of Clinton’s strategy of staying out of the public eye while her supporters campaign on her behalf. Namely, that it could create Clinton fatigue among activists and fuel concerns that she’s taking the Democratic nomination for granted.
“I’ll be ready for Hillary when Hillary’s ready for Hillary,” said Bill Verge, a Democratic activist who played a key role in John Kerry’s 2004 New Hampshire campaign. Like Tetreau, Verge, who said he has been “inundated with emails daily,” counts himself a likely Clinton supporter — but one turned off by the aggressive fundraising on behalf of a candidate who appears intent on postponing an official entry into the race possibly until July.
I have no doubt that some Democrats may be annoyed by the current state of Hillary’s non-campaign, but I can’t see how it hurts fundraising in the long run. Assuming she does announce, I can see the money begin rolling in at that point. Until then, I think there is the assumption she’s running, but there is still a chance, even though small, that she passes on 2016. That slight doubt may be enough to turn off some Democratic activists to the campaign until their have a person to root for.
