WASHINGTON — Fundraising in the presidential contest has zoomed past the $1 billion mark, fueled by the dozens of super-wealthy Americans bankrolling super PACs that have acted as shadow campaigns for White House contenders.
Presidential candidates and the super PACs closely aligned with them had raised a little more than $1 billion through the end of February, newly released campaign reports show. By comparison, the presidential fundraising by candidates and their super PACs had hit $402.7 million at this point in the 2012 election, according to data compiled by the non-partisan Campaign Finance Institute.
The price tag of the White House contest puts it roughly on par with the value of Major League Baseball's Chicago White Sox, which Forbes this week pegged as worth $1.05 billion, but it's far less than the nearly $7 billion American consumers spent last year to celebrate Halloween.
New figures show that super PACs and their super-wealthy patrons are footing more of the cost of running for the presidency. Super PACs now account for nearly 40% of all presidential fundraising, up from about 22% at this point four years ago.
Money flowing directly to candidates has dropped.
In 2008, the last election in which neither a sitting president nor vice president sought the White House, candidates had raised $812 million at this point in the campaign, the institute’s data show. Super PACs, authorized by a pair of federal court rulings in 2010, did not exist during the 2008 campaign.
Eight years later, the nearly two dozen men and women who have run for the presidency in 2016 had collected far less: $623.8 million. That reflects, in part, the difference in the kinds of candidates running this year, said Michael Malbin, executive director of the Campaign Finance Institute.
“When you have so many candidates running on disaffection with the establishment, it doesn’t make it easy to go the establishment and raise money,” he said.
The 2008 field included a former vice presidential nominee (Democrat John Edwards), a dozen current or former members of Congress and two ex-governors, many of whom drew support from their party’s traditional big donors.
In 2016, the GOP race is led by a billionaire political novice, Donald Trump, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a first-term senator who rails often against the “Washington cartel.” Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders, a billionaire-bashing Vermonter seeking the Democratic nomination, outraised the entire presidential field last month, fueled by small online donations.
A USA TODAY analysis shows 108 people, companies and groups have contributed at least $1 million to super PACs helping individual presidential candidates. They have given more than $232 million — more than half the money flowing to those super PACs — with mixed results. Three-quarters of the money went to help candidates in the once-crowded Republican field.
Hank “Maurice” Greenberg, the former CEO of insurance giant AIG, emerged as the biggest contributor to presidential-aligned super PACs, campaign-finance reports filed this week show. Companies tied to Greenberg donated $15 million to presidential super PACs, but the two candidates he backed, establishment-favored Republicans Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, tanked in early contests and dropped out.
Although Sanders has surged ahead of his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in January and February campaign contributions, Clinton has raised more money than any presidential contender in the entire election cycle. The former secretary of State has raised $162.8 million for the primary battle through the end of last month, exceeding the $151.7 million she had collected at this stage of the 2008 nomination fight she lost to President Obama, according to the institute’s tally.
Her main super PAC, meanwhile, sat on the bulk of its money through much of the primary fight, spending about $5.6 million to date.
It's now mobilizing for a major campaign to boost Clinton in the general election. The super PAC, Priorities USA Action, announced this week that it plans to reserve about $70 million in television ads that will start airing after the Democratic National Convention in late July and through the fall.
How will Priorities succeed in an election in which so many Republican super PACs have failed to help the candidates they support?
“Super PACs can’t replace a good campaign. They support and enhance them,” said Priorities spokesman Justin Barasky. “Hillary Clinton has a very strong campaign. They raise a lot of money, and they have a world-class field operation.”
The group is gearing up to face either Trump and Cruz in the general election and is studying the recent last-ditch attempts by Trump’s opponents to derail his march to the GOP nomination for clues about what works and what doesn't.
“The Republicans have taught us some valuable lessons in the primary,” Barasky said. “You can’t take Donald Trump for granted. You can’t ignore him. You can’t beat him by doing bad impressions of him.”
“We’re going to be ready to fight back early and often," he added.
Contributing: Christopher Schnaars
