Michael Toner Weighs in on Projected Candidate Fundraising for 2016 Presidential Election

Michael E. Toner, co-chair of Wiley Rein’s Election Law & Government Ethics Practice, was quoted extensively in an article published yesterday in Politico about the amounts of money that top-tier presidential candidates are likely to raise for the 2016 presidential election.  The 2016 presidential candidate fundraising amounts are expected to be significantly higher than the $1.2 billion that the Obama Campaign and the Democratic Party raised collectively for the 2012 presidential race.

Given the fundraising prowess of Hillary Clinton, should she enter the Democratic presidential primary her presence “would likely have a ripple effect on how much money other candidates are going to have to raise in 2015 just to be in the ballgame,” Mr. Toner said.  “She is the 10,000-pound gorilla.”  Mr. Toner, a former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), predicted that if Clinton won the Democratic nomination, her campaign committee alone could raise $1 billion and her campaign committee and allied committees could collectively raise $1.7 billion or more for the 2016 presidential race.  Given those prodigious projected fundraising totals,  Mr. Toner noted that other top-tier presidential campaigns would likely need to raise between $100-$150 million in 2015 in order to be competitive.

To read the entire article, click here.