2016 Presidential Candidates: Bankers, Lawyers Prefer 'Legacy' Candidates Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush
Their role as "establishment candidates" may make it hard for them to rally the energized base of their respective parties, but when it comes to bankers and lawyers, Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush have no trouble winning support.
Quarterly presidential fundraising reports suggest that Wall Street in particular has taken a liking to the two "dynastic" rivals. The Week noted Clinton collected just under $700,000 from people who work in finance, while Bush took in more than $900,000 from the group.
In Bush's case, in particular, the popularity among financiers marks a stark difference from his overall support, which has recently been dropping in national polls, Reuters pointed out. Nevertheless, their contributions only account for a tiny part of the $13.4 million the former Florida governor's campaign took in this quarter, the newswire added.
Clinton, meanwhile, has the backing of an important list of Wall Street heavyweights, including Laura Blankfein, the wife of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, and Daniel Och, the chairman and CEO of the Och-Ziff Capital Management Group, Politico noted. When the then-first lady kicked off her political career with a Senate run in New York in 2008, the financial industry was one of the major supporters, the political publication added.
Bankers, however, were not the top contributors for either Clinton or Bush. When split down by profession, attorneys were the most that gave to the campaigns -- $3.1 million in the case of the former secretary of state, and $845,000 in that of the former governor.
Direct campaign contributions, while not insignificant, are only a fraction of the funds contributed to the nominally independent political action committees supporting White House contenders from both parties, Politico added. Details about such super PAC accounts, however, will not be available until the next round of disclosures in January.
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