I Did Not Expect This

It appears that the Bernie Sanders campaign employs no fund raising staff, Hillary Clinton, in contrast, has over 30 dedicated full time staffers working this:

It’s no secret that Bernie Sanders is raising tons of money, but that fact that he’s doing it without a finance team is highly unusual.

Bernie Sanders loves to talk about the fact that he doesn’t have a super-PAC backing his campaign. But the true state of his fundraising strategy is even more astonishing than that: The Sanders campaign doesn’t have a finance team.

And that’s a big deal.

Every competitive presidential campaign in recent election cycles has had team of people exclusively dedicated to finances: figuring out how much money the campaign needs, putting together a plan to get that money, and then making it all come together.

It’s considered a fundamental part of a modern presidential campaign, right up there with having a team to deal with the press. But Sanders may be changing that.

Call it a reinvention of campaign funding, but the Vermont senator has shown so far that a campaign can operate just fine without a fleet of green-visors counting the cash.

“I’ve never heard of a presidential campaign, even a minor party presidential campaign, that didn’t have a fundraising team,” said one campaign finance attorney. “But, OK if it’s working.”

And, judging by Sanders’s latest fundraising numbers, it is.

This is a positive thing for a number of reasons.  Not only does this reduce his burn rate, 30 staffers full time raising cash probably cost something north of 60 Grand a month, but also because the fundraising profession is an entry point for the most repulsive people in public service (See Emanuel, Rahm, and Wasserman-Schultz, Debbie).

I really like this guy.