ALBANY — New York Democrats wanted no part of a Hillary Clinton fund-raising plan that former Democratic National Committee interim Chairwoman Donna Brazile says rigged the 2016 Democratic primary in her favor.
The Clinton campaign approached the Gov. Cuomo-controlled state Democratic Party several times about participating in a fund-raising program called the Hillary Victory Fund that had dozens of state parties raising money well above what could be given to an individual presidential candidate and then transferring it to the national party, a source close to the situation said.
The money from the fund was then used mostly by the Clinton campaign and to prop up the cash-strapped Democratic National Committee that was left deep in debt after the 2012 re-election of Barack Obama, Brazile wrote in a new book.
New York was one of the larger state parties, along with California, that did not sign on to the plan.
Even though Cuomo and many top New York Democrats quickly endorsed Clinton, a state resident, the party didn’t want to take the next step by signing on to an agreement to shift cash to the victory fund she controlled while she was in a hotly contested primary battle with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the source said.
“We felt it would be unfair to officially put the state party in that position that early in the process when there was still a primary going on,” the source said. “We were also wary of how it would make progressives in New York who were supporting Bernie Sanders feel.”
The source said the Clinton campaign called several times and was not happy when her state party wouldn’t participate in the plan.
At one point, there were also concerns about the idea of using a loophole to get around the lower candidate campaign limits by funneling money through the state parties to the national party, the source said. Mayor de Blasio and his fundraising operation found themselves under investigation for using upstate county committees to get around donation limits for individuals. He was not charged, though prosecutors questioned the ethics of it.
Under the Clinton campaign agreements with nearly three dozen states, donors could send almost $360,000 a year to the Clinton campaign — $5,400 directly to the candidate, $33,400 to the DNC, and $10,000 to each of the participating state committees.
“They came to us on multiple occasions, asking us repeatedly to sign on,” the source reiterated. “We said, ‘no, we’re holding off.’ They were very angry at us because of it.”
In announcing the proposal, Clinton said the goal was to rebuild the party “from the ground up… when our state parties are strong we win.” Politico reported that the effort raised $82 million, but state parties keep less than half of one percent of that for down ballot races.
Critics called it a money-laundering effort designed to skirt campaign limits.
“The funding arrangement (Hillary for America) and the victory fund agreement was not illegal, but it sure looked unethical,” Brazile wrote in her upcoming book, “Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Break-downs that Put Donald Trump in the White House”.
“If the fight had been fair, one campaign would not have control for the party before the voters had decided which one they wanted to lead. This was not a criminal act, but as I saw it, it compromised the party’s integrity.”
In an excerpt of the book excerpted by Politico, Brazile said when she took over the Democratic National Committee she investigated the situation after a series of hacked emails showed that the Clinton campaign was running the DNC and fixed the game against Sanders.
“By September 7, the day I called Bernie, I had found my proof and it broke my heart,” she wrote.
She outlined an August 2015 agreement between the Clinton campaign, Clinton’s joint fundraising committee and the DNC that “specified in exchange for raising money and investing in the DNC, Hillary would control the party’s finances, strategy, and all the money raised.”
Peter Kauffmann, a former DNC staffer who worked for Clinton when she was a U.S. senator, used a Facebook post to take issue with Brazile’s contention that the Clinton campaign had done anything wrong.
“Al Gore was in control of the DNC long before he was the nominee,” Kauffmann wrote. “He installed his own co-chairs and senior staff while I was still there in 1999.”
He added that “if Bernie wants a voice inside the Democratic National Committee, he should probably register as a Democrat and get to work.”
