Reports from Clinton's campaign show that on Dec. 3, it collected payment for renting out three mailing lists, the sale of which netted them $8,225.Hmmmm, so Hillary Clinton sold her donor lists--which no other candidate did--and she sold them for about 1/100th of what they were worth.It was an unusual transaction, according to Roger Craver, a liberal guru of the political direct-mail industry.
"As a general rule, a campaign will not let its donor list out into the markets until the campaign is over," he said. "This is the mother's milk of small-gift fundraising, and they use these lists frequently."
There are no records that any other presidential candidates rented out mailing lists last year.
Several sources who work in political consulting and in direct mail, who would not speak for attribution, said they were surprised by the deal, as well as its low price.
According to one direct-mail professional, $800,000 would have seemed like a more plausible price for a quality list. A political consultant suggested that the list broker's unidentified client could have rented the list as a sample one - to do a test-run mailing.
Care to discuss this a bit more? Follow me over the jump.
Is it possible that Hillary has found a way around the fund raising laws? The person who rented the list is named Vin Gupta. Now let's see, why would someone sell someone something for 1/100th of what it was worth?
Is it possible that the Clintons owe Vin Gupta something?
Gupta spent $900,000 of corporate money flying the Clintons to various destinations. The Clinton campaign said in May that Info U.S.A. had been reimbursed to comply with federal campaigning and ethics rules.Yeah, no conflict of interest here. Nothing to see--move along, move along.After the Clintons left the White House, Gupta hired Bill Clinton as a consultant. It's one of two continuing business relationships he has had since leaving office, and it has been worth $3.3 million, in addition to the options on 100,000 shares of stock.
When challenged about that outlay of cash to the former president, Gupta has said Clinton is worth $40 million to the company.
National Public Radio broke this story (NPR?), read the complete story here.
Hat Tip: JohnViking at DailyKos