"The only reason to do
this is to rig the stats."
Facing sustained
criticism from rival Democratic presidential hopefuls over his ritzy
wine cave fundraiser and billionaire contributors, South Bend, Indiana Mayor
Pete Buttigieg's 2020 campaign this week launched a "contest" to see
which supporter can give the candidate the smallest unique donation—a
competition that's conveniently
timed just ahead of the fourth-quarter filing deadline.
Buttigieg's campaign described
the contest as an innocuous "end of year guessing game," but critics
condemned it as a gimmick that appears designed to lower the mayor's average
donation for the final quarter of the year and create the impression of a
genuine surge in grassroots enthusiasm.
Through three quarters of
fundraising, Buttigieg's average donation has been around
$40, significantly higher than the $18 and $27 averages boasted by Sens.
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), respectively.
"Instead of just ending
private fundraisers with wealthy donors and refusing to accept donations from
billionaires, Pete's campaign rolled out this cynical ploy to skew the average
donation amount by flooding the pool with mass donations of a few
pennies," tweeted progressive
activist Jordan Uhl. "What a fucking joke."
In a Christmas Eve email to
supporters, the "Pete for America Innovation Team" explained the
contest:
All you have to do to win is
donate the smallest amount that nobody else donates. In other words, suppose
you donate $1.00. If someone else playing also donated exactly $1, you both
lose. We'll see if only one player donated $1.01, and so on until we find an
amount donated exactly once, and that's our winner.
That's it—those are the rules!
Only donations that are part of this contest count (from this email, and let's
be real, we might send you a reminder or two but that's it). Multiple donations
are allowed; just be creative, pick a unique donation amount, and you could
win.
Tim Tagaris, a senior adviser
to the Sanders campaign, highlighted the email on Twitter, calling the
competition "transparently hilarious."
"The Pete for America
Innovation Team out there working hard on Christmas Eve coming up with gimmicks
to lower his average donation amount this quarter," wrote Tagaris.
"Funny stuff."
"The only reason to do
this is to rig the stats," tweeted activist
Rafael Shimunov. "Buttigieg wants to diversify the amounts here, so that
in financial filings it doesn't look suspiciously like the same amount.
Encouraging supporters to think up random tiny amounts to make it appear
natural and not rigged."
The contest comes just days
after Warren and Sanders both took aim at Buttigieg over his now-infamous wine
cave fundraiser in Napa Valley, California and his dozens of
billionaire campaign contributors.
"Billionaires in wine
caves should not pick the next president of the United States," Warren
said during the Democratic presidential debate in Los Angeles last week.
Sanders piled on, scathingly
mocking the "real competition" between Buttigieg and former Vice
President Joe Biden over who has the most billionaire donors.
"My good friend, Joe, and
he is a good friend, he's received contributions from 44 billionaires. Pete, on
the other hand, he's trailing... You only got 39 billionaires
contributing," Sanders said. "So, Pete, we look forward to you—I know
you're an energetic guy and a competitive guy—to see if you can take on Joe on
that issue."
Ahead of the debate,
Buttigieg drew
outrage by leaving more than twenty major bundlers off a list of top
fundraisers his campaign released last week—omissions the campaign said were
inadvertent.
"The first time I saw
this list, I said, 'There is no way this is comprehensive," Jeff Hauser,
executive director of the Revolving Door Project, told Politico.
"It's just kind of mind-blowing that they would be this dishonest."
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