06-21-2016, 09:29 AM
Quote:The June monthly FEC filings are starting to show up, and they justify incipient Republican panic. Hillary Clinton raised $19.5 million and has $42 million cash on hand. Donald Trump raised $3.1 million and has $1.3 million cash on hand. Clinton is reported to have raised $4.5 million at a fundraiser in NY tonight, more than Trump raised last month.
The Republican convention is a month away, July 18th, the Democratic convention a week after. The candidates can only spend primary money until they are nominated. Trump is on a very tight budget for the next month, Hillary and her allies will be hammering him through his convention. She wants to spend all of her primary cash before she is nominated.
It looks like the Trump campaign could "go dark" up to the convention, relying on news coverage (Clinton should insist on the same level of free advertisement). Clinton's campaign will be essentially free to "paint" Trump into a corner; he'll have to fight his way through that framing before he can offer his own.
This likely means big problems for the GOP to keep the Senate as well.