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It’s hard to get the public interested in campaign finance stories anymore. After all, most people have pretty much accepted that politicians are nothing but bought-and-paid-for tools of wealthy special interests – using their campaign accounts for all sorts of nefarious, ethically challenged activities.
Why should we be surprised when such conventional wisdom is confirmed?
Accordingly, campaign finance coverage has become definitional inside baseball … the sort of stuff a very small clique of campaign junkies read late at night while they wait for their melatonin to kick in.
A quick way to revive interest in such stories, though, is for a candidate to lie about something as simple as the amount of money they raised … or, in the case of former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, the money they didn’t raise.
Haley announced to great fanfare back on April 5, 2023 that her presidential bid had taken in an impressive $11 million during its first six weeks – which it noted was more than the $9.5 million raised by former president Donald Trump during the fourth quarter of last year following his reelection announcement.
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“In just six weeks, Nikki Haley’s massive fundraising and active retail campaigning in early voting states makes her a force to be reckoned with,” Haley’s campaign manager Betsy Ankney said in a statement provided to national media. “Voters and donors are clearly responding to Nikki’s conservative message and her call for a new generation of leadership to make America strong and proud.”
The problem? Haley didn’t raise $11 million – she only raised $8.3 million.
“After Haley filed her first-quarter report to the Federal Election Commission late Saturday, an altogether different story has emerged,” Steven Shepard wrote for Politico. “Her campaign’s math didn’t add up.”
According to Shepard, Haley’s inflated number was attributable to “a case of double-counting” involving transfers from her affiliated political action committees and joint fundraising organizations.
“Haley’s campaign appears to have summed the three committee’s cash infusions, even though two of them took a significant chunk of money from the third,” reporters Isaac Stanley-Becker and Dylan Wells noted in their coverage for The Washington Post.
Stanley-Becker and Wells referred to the reporting by Haley’s campaign as “highly unusual.”
I say "only” but ... look, $8.3 million is still a helluva number. An incredible number. In a political climate dominated by big-dollar political action committees, for a candidate committee to pull down that sort of cheddar in such a short time is a huge deal.
But that is no longer the story. Now, the story is Haley lied about the amount of money she raised ... which is absolutely one of the dumbest things in the world a candidate could choose to be dishonest about.
How could a credible national campaign be this stupid? Did they seriously think they wouldn’t get caught fudging numbers?
Given my personal history with Haley, I’ve done my level best not to unfairly criticize her since she announced her candidacy for the American presidency. In fact, I praised her last month for staking out some important ideological ground on the issue of entitlement spending - something both Trump and Florida governor Ron DeSantis have refused to get serious about.
Others in the media have not been so kind to Haley since her entry into the race ...
But this unforced error cannot be ignored because it goes directly to Haley’s core problem - her on-again, (mostly) off-again relationship with the truth. By lying about her fundraising total - a number she had absolutely zero need of embellishing - Haley has gift-wrapped a reason for the national media to start digging into other things she has lied about over the years.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR ...
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children.
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10 comments
She’s an empty pantsuit.
Whatever money she and Tim have is a waste of good money! All I can say is, are they trying to be VP? Losers, them both.
What else is new?
Bless her heart.
Funny thing, her daughter got married recently to a young black man. Out of four wedding pix she shared with the public, he was only in one. Was she trying to snub her new son-in-law already? Was she afraid his race might not be good for her campaign? Was she ashamed of him because of his race?
What is the deal, Nikki?
Nikki is a typical Republican, so, of course, she lies.
The entire Republican platform is to lie about everything and try and drum up some misguided rage in the base.
The GQP is basically the Soviet Party right before the break up of the CCCP.
Well you have a point. Democrats don’t lie. Democrats want to take your guns, they want to be able to slaughter children in the womb. They want to use your money in many wasteful programs and kickbacks and they do not lie about any of it.
You lie like a good Republican.
Republicans want your living, viable children shot to death in school. Also, Republicans want children to be married at 12 years old, while weakening child labor laws. (Stuff they used to pretend they didn’t support, but now say out loud to video cameras)
See what happens when Republican tell the truth? It’s god awful, disgusting stuff (that’s why they lie…their truths are anti-American and hugely unpopular with normal voters)
If you really think they are both different then you are sadly mistaken. They are all the same, both parties.
Nope. Not at all.
Especially these days, but by all means, keep believing the things you hear on TV. And especially stay disengaged and don’t vote.
Keep living in bliss, son!
When has a Democrat ever taken a gun ?