minor PL. in another life i managed a State House Rep campaign. the candidate was challenging an incumbent in the primary, so we were completely on our own as far as fundraising, and this meant it would be an unpaid position for me until after (if) we won the primary election. over a five-month period, with my candidate being very well-known in their community, knocking on doors, getting events organized as in-kind donations, making calls… we made and spent $10,000 against the incumbent’s $36,000 war chest. while we did win the primary, my salary from the candidate’s party became $2000/mo as an independent contractor. after that point, every dollar we raised was funneled back into the campaign and i ran on a skeleton crew of volunteers and made most of the phonecalls/door knocks myself. my candidate and their partner did some robocalls as well. we were supplied a voter database so we could narrow down who to call based on how often they voted, in which elections, etc.
i say all this to say, even ACTUAL elections, where people care about voting, on the community scale russ is talking about, where they are backing a person and not an idea, there is not a single prayer of his PAC making payable money, let alone the amounts he’s talking about. the VAST majority of donations we received came from events/in kind donations to host those events. his complete and utter fucking cluelessness about anything continues to baffle me.
edit: typos
