Saturday, April 9, 2016

Funding for GOP National Convention Jeopardized Over Establishment Attacks on Donald Trump (VIDEO)

Hey, the GOPe deserves to have the big donors bail out.

If Reince and his cronies would have instead embraced Donald Trump, instead of excoriating him, they wouldn't be in this jam.

At LAT, "With Trump's rise, big donors and companies hesitate to commit money to the GOP convention":



With Donald Trump locked in a dogfight against much of the rest of the Republican Party, a lot of things are uncertain about the GOP’s convention in Cleveland in July.

Here’s a big one: Who will pay for it?

Four years ago, after Mitt Romney clinched the nomination, his fundraising team pulled in millions from GOP stalwarts to close a gap in money for the convention in Tampa, Fla. Sheldon Adelson, the casino mogul, gave $5 million. Energy billionaire and activist David Koch, Los Angeles media figure Jerry Perenchio and hedge fund billionaires Robert Mercer, Paul Singer and John Paulson each donated $1 million.

But Trump’s improbable success has blown a hole in that model of convention financing. Trump hasn’t built a fundraising network of his own and has spent much of the campaign sneering at rivals for being under the thumb of their big donors.

Some of the party’s big-dollar donors from four years ago, unhappy about the prospect of contributing to a chaotic or brokered convention, are holding onto their money. Blue chip corporations that helped underwrite the 2012 convention, including Microsoft and AT&T, are now facing a pressure campaign to stay away.

“All I can tell is there’s disenchantment with the whole system right now,” said Jay Zeidman, a Republican fundraiser from Houston. With his father, Fred, another big GOP donor, Jay Zeidman supported Jeb Bush and now is backing Sen. Ted Cruz.

“You can’t compare last time with where we are now, because we’re sort of in uncharted territory,” he said.

Trump supporters call concerns about paying for the convention mere hand-wringing by traditional party power brokers who fear being shut out.

“There’s a little heartburn on K Street,” Washington campaign consultant Barry Bennett, who has advised Trump, said, referring to the downtown Washington street that houses many lobbying and law firms. “It’s a lot of people who make their living based on proximity to power, if not access, so they’re threatened.”

The convention won’t be at risk, he said; Trump has enough rich friends to write checks...
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