Cruz, Clinton set pace in Nevada campaign donations

By Megan Messerly

Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016 | 2 a.m.

As Sen. Ted Cruz celebrated his win over front-runner Donald Trump on Monday in the Iowa caucuses, he'd already scored a quieter victory in Nevada.

The Texas Republican had the highest fundraising numbers in the fourth quarter of any presidential candidate, Republican or Democrat, in the Silver State, according to official fundraising reports that were due Jan. 31 and were released this week.

Cruz’s Nevada numbers got off to a slow start in the beginning of the year, as he raised about $89,000 in the first three quarters. But he managed to almost double that amount in the last quarter, raking in $159,000 through about 1,000 individual contributions.

The senator’s Nevada numbers include $2,700 each from Sheldon Adelson, his wife and his daughter. (Adelson and his wife also chipped in $2,700 each to one-time front-runner Jeb Bush in mid-November.)

Steve Wynn and his wife contributed $5,400 each to Cruz as well — $2,700 for the primary and $2,700 for the general election. The Wynns also gave $2,700 each to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

“You can clearly see Cruz has kicked it into high gear here compared to what he did in the first three quarters of the year — and that’s not all the Adelsons,” said David Damore, political science professor at UNLV. “He’s expanding his base there.”

Still, in terms of raw fundraising totals for the year, Cruz fell in fourth place, raising $249,000. Rubio won that game, bringing in $305,000 in 2015, including $135,000 in the fourth quarter from 370 individual contributions. (The Wynns gave $2,700 each to Rubio in 2015.)

Bush slid back from his strong fundraising game at the beginning of the year, bringing in $34,000 in the fourth quarter after a $216,000 haul in the first three quarters. MGM Resorts CEO Jim Murren and his wife contributed $5,000 collectively to the campaign.

“Jeb Bush’s lower total would surprise me if he hadn’t been leaking oil nationally,” said Michael Green, professor of history at UNLV.

For political observers, perhaps the most surprising revelation in the numbers was that retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson continued to raise significant sums in the last quarter of the year. He brought in $141,000 from Nevadans in the first three quarters and $108,000 in the last quarter, placing him higher than Cruz in total contributions.

“Carson still has appeal, and this number suggests people in Nevada still support him as well,” Damore said. “Even though he’s been written off by the pundit class, he still has a constituency here.”

Carson also came in fourth in Iowa, an unexpected but noteworthy boon for the candidate who scooped up 9 percent of Iowans votes.

Trump, meanwhile, brought in $30,000 total this year in Nevada, $18,000 in the first three quarters and $12,000 in the fourth quarter — in line with his overall strategy of self-funding his campaign.

“Trump is just amazing. He is just rewriting the rules of campaigns,” Damore said. “Basically to have a non-existent fundraising operation and to command that kind of media and public attention, it’s amazing.”

Although he was first in the polls in Iowa, Trump finished second in Iowa.

Among Democrats, Clinton has outraised Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by more than four times in Nevada. Last year, she brought in $580,000 from Nevadans while Sanders took in $132,000. (Brian Greenspun, the owner and publisher of Greenspun Media Group, and his wife, Myra, each contributed $2,700 to Clinton’s campaign.)

Nationally, Sanders has raised only slightly less than Clinton in the last two quarters, closing the gap that had existed between them the previous quarter. In Nevada, Sanders has started to close that gap, but not by the same margins.

In the first three quarters in Nevada, Sanders brought in $60,000 to Clinton’s $431,000. That narrowed to $72,000 in the last quarter for Sanders and $149,000 for Clinton.

“Hillary Clinton has been a financial juggernaut in Nevada and Bernie Sanders, you might say, has gotten a lot of bang for the buck,” Green said. “But at the same time, the pickup he made in the fourth quarter speaks to how he has struck a chord or a nerve, depending on your point of view.”

Both candidates have seen high volume of individual contributors over the year, about 1,300 for Clinton and 1,400 for Sanders. Those include large numbers of individual donors as well as repeated smaller contributions from a single donor.

“Both lists have what you might call multiple returners. Somebody will give $500 and another $250. Both of them were doing pretty well with that group,” Green added. “I think it also suggests that both of them have attracted solid support.”

The Democratic and Republican candidates are now looking ahead to next Tuesday's New Hampshire primary. Then, Democratic candidates will set their sights on Nevada’s Feb. 20 caucus. Republican candidates will first turn to South Carolina’s primary ahead of Nevada’s Feb. 23 caucus.