Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) announced his 2016 presidential campaign had pulled in $3 million over the last four days, The Hill reports.
“Sanders’s campaign had received approximately 75,000 contributions at an average amount of $43… A campaign adviser also told the publication 99.4 percent of the donations were in the amounts of $250 or less.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) “long has been close to the Democratic Party. He has won the endorsements of top national Democrats in some of his elections. Even as an Independent he caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate. Earlier this year he was named by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid as the ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee,” WMUR reports.
“But when it comes to filing to appear on the New Hampshire primary ballot, none of that may matter. Here, it’s the state law that counts and the state law requires party registration.”
“What’s wrong with that? What’s wrong when you have more income and wealth equality. What’s wrong when they have a stronger middle class in many ways than we do, a higher minimum wage than we do and they’re stronger on the environment than we are.”
— Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), quoted by the Wall Street Journal, on whether he wants America “to look more like Scandinavia.”
“Citing a history of surprising victories, Bernie Sanders said on Sunday the political world shouldn’t discount his chances of winning the presidency,” Politico reports.
Said Sanders: “Don’t underestimate me.”
He added: “We need a political revolution in this country and I want to lead that effort.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders announced that his presidential campaign “has raised more than $1.5 million online in the 24 hours since he announced his candidacy,” the Washington Post reports.
“It is a surprisingly heavy haul for a candidate whom some in the Democratic chattering class have cast off as a gadfly and viewed as unable to wrest the nomination from the overwhelming favorite, Hillary Rodham Clinton. The donations came from a broad base of supporters — some 35,000 donors who gave an average of $43.54 a piece, according to the Sanders campaign.”
First Read: “Bernie Sanders’ official entrance into the 2016 presidential race is most likely a good outcome for Hillary Clinton. Why? He will elevate many of the issues that Clinton and the entire Democratic Party want to discuss during the primary season (income inequality, curtailing the role of big money in presidential politics, climate change). And he’ll do so as someone who isn’t interested in scoring political points — especially in the form of negative attacks — against Hillary. Hillary’s Harlem (err Brooklyn) Globetrotters now has its Washington (err Vermont) Generals. The question we have is whether it’s enough competition to up Hillary’s game.”
“We’re looking at a system where our democracy is being owned by a handful of billionaires.”
— Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), quoted by ABC News, on why he’s running for president.
Rick Klein: “Bernie Sanders has almost no realistic chance of becoming the Democratic nominee for president. But that’s not the most effective way to think about his candidacy. His presence in the race ensures that Hillary Clinton will be pressed continually and consistently from the left — and now potentially from across the debate stage. Interest in Sanders will be driven by many of the same activists and other Democratic faithful who wanted so desperately to see Elizabeth Warren in the race. And Sanders’ timing could hardly be better: the left is growing anxious over President Obama’s agenda and nervous that Hillary Clinton might be tempted to provide minimal amounts of daylight between her policy positions and his.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) plans to run for president as a Democrat, becoming the only official party challenger so far to Hillary Clinton, the New York Times reports.
“According to people familiar with the senator’s plans, he will release a statement on Thursday and make a more formal announcement of candidacy later next month in Vermont. That event will likely take place at City Hall in Burlington, where he was mayor.”
USA Today: “It also will be the first time that the fiercely independent politician has run as a Democrat. He has long criticized both parties for being too beholden to corporate interests. He does not accept campaign contributions from corporate political action committees.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has relaunched his campaign website in a way that makes it look like he’s going to be running a national campaign.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) “hasn’t made any big hires for a potential presidential run. He doesn’t have the money he needs for a campaign and isn’t sure he can raise it. And he’s already sick of hearing about Hillary Clinton. This is not a guy who’s ready for 2016,” Politico concludes.
“He shakes his head no when asked if he’s figured out whether to run as an independent or a Democrat. Instead of dwelling on his recent visits to early nominating states Iowa and New Hampshire, Sanders instead brings up upcoming trips to California, Texas and Nevada. He also admits he hasn’t gotten far on the financial and staffing fronts.”
“You’re not going to be the sixteenth writer who asks me about Hillary, are you? I know you would not do that. You want to ask me about the state of the economy, unemployment, poverty. You would not ask me about my views on Hillary Clinton.”
— Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), quoted by Bloomberg.
“My wife always reminds me I depress everybody so much that I need to pass out tranquilizers.”
— Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), quoted by the Boston Globe, joking about his curmudgeonly demeanor.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) tells Time he would run a “class-based” presidential campaign that could “unfurl as early as March.”
His biggest regret about President Obama is that he never stood up like Franklin Delano Roosevelt did in 1936 to denounce the “economic royalists” of finance and industry, to “welcome their hatred.”
Said Sanders: “Point the finger at the billionaire class to say, ‘You know what, they hate my guts, the Koch brothers hate me, it’s all right. But I’m with you, and this is what we’re going to do.'”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) told the Associated Press that he will decide by March whether to run for president in 2016.
Said Sanders: “I don’t want to do it unless I can do it well. I don’t want to do it unless we can win this thing.”
Sanders also said that he is still unsure if he would run as an independent or a Democrat.
The New York Times follows Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in Iowa: “At 73 and famously gruff, he may be on one of the most quixotic adventures in American politics: In a country that just put Republicans in charge of Congress, he is testing whether Democrats will embrace a socialist for the White House in 2016. He is certainly the only potential candidate to carry a brass key chain from a campaign of Eugene V. Debs, a five-time Socialist Party nominee for president.”
“He has virtually no chance of winning the nomination, but he does have a chance to shape the debate — presuming he actually runs. With his fiery populist attacks on Wall Street and ‘the billionaire class,’ he could become either a nettlesome thorn to Hillary Rodham Clinton or a convenient foil for her, if she runs.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) “has spent months fishing for a strategist to guide his potential 2016 presidential campaign. On Monday, he hooked a big one: Tad Devine, one of the Democratic Party’s leading consultants and a former high-level campaign aide to Al Gore, John Kerry, and Michael Dukakis,” the Washington Post reports.
“Devine and Sanders, who first worked together on Sanders’s campaigns in the 1990s, have been huddling in recent weeks, mapping out how the brusque progressive senator could navigate a primary and present a formidable challenge to Hillary Rodham Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination.”
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and former Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) told the New Yorker they are considering challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination by attacking her from the left.
“The history of Democratic primaries suggests that an insurgent can’t expect to gain recognition with only a fresh face and a superior organization. Inevitably, the candidate must attack the front-runner from the left.”
Bloomberg: Clinton crushing her rivals on Facebook and Twitter
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”
— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”
“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”
— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”
— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”
— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
“Political Wire is a great, great site.”
— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”
— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”
— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”
— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.