The Story:
Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has returned $30,000 of donations to the lobbyists it came from as part of a change in course for his campaign.
Background:
In an email to Buttigieg supporters on April 26, the Mayor’s campaign manager, Mike Schmuhl, said that if Buttigieg becomes President he “will not be influenced by special-interest money.” He said that Buttigieg is promising not to accept any further such donations from lobbyists, and that making this promise is an important part of his commitment to keep himself out of the pockets of those special interests.
Buttigieg has been polling third of late in both of the key early-voting states: Iowa and New Hampshire, behind only Vice President Biden and Senator Sanders. Buttigieg has pulled ahead of candidates who until very recently were much better known, including Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Kamala Harris (D – CA).
The Thing to Know:
The question of how campaigns ought to be financed has been a hot one in US politics for a long time now: arguably since Theodore Roosevelt’s Presidency. The system of laws governing the question is in flux: but the Democratic candidates in this cycle especially are illustrating their views on that subject by how they are financing their own campaigns.
