DNC head: No difference on Clinton, Sanders fundraising

The chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Wednesday said her organization treats Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Hillary Clinton equally on fundraising.

“Both candidates have a joint fundraising agreement that is exactly like the joint fundraising agreements that we’ve had with our previous candidates for president,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said on Fox Business Network.

{mosads}“There is absolutely nothing different in the way we have spent money and raised money with Secretary Hillary Clinton,” she said.

Sanders’s campaign on Monday complained about the DNC’s joint fundraising relationship with Clinton’s camp.

“Sen. Sanders has chosen not to exercise the use of his joint fundraising agreement. There are no violations. We have been running the victory fund exactly the way we’re supposed to,” Wasserman Schultz said.

In a letter to the DNC, Sanders argued the fundraising raises “serious apparent violations” of campaign finance laws and should “cease immediately.”

At issue are individual contributions to the Hillary Victory Fund worth $353,400 or more, “which is over 130 times the $2,700 limit that applies for contributions to Secretary Clinton’s campaign.”

“Bernie 2016 is particularly concerned that these extremely large-dollar individual contributions have been used by the Hillary Victory Fund to pay for more than $7.8 million in direct mail efforts and over $8.6 million in online advertising, both of which appear to benefit only HFA by generating low dollar contributions that flow only to HFA, rather than to the DNC or any of the participating state party committee,” the letter from Brad Deutsch, the Sanders campaign’s attorney, said.

Wasserman Schultz on Wednesday said the candidates should focus on their campaigns rather than the DNC’s tactics.

“That’s what our candidates should be doing — drawing a contrast in their message and their vision for continuing to help people reach the middle class [and] build on the more than 14 million jobs created by President Obama since he took office,” she said.

“[They should] contrast that with the extremism and the vitriol and the chaos that is reigning on the [GOP] side. That will bode well for electing the 45th president of the United States.”