Hillary Clinton raising big dollars at tiny fundraisers
"The people who rigged the system are supporting Hillary Clinton because they know as long as she is in charge nothing's going to change," Trump told employees of an aluminum scrap metal factory in a speech on Tuesday.
[...] as Clinton works to win over liberals in her party after a divisive primary, the events may undercut her argument that she would be a strong proponent of campaign finance reform.
Both Clinton and Trump can solicit checks of $350,000 or more from a single donor thanks in part to a Supreme Court ruling that lifted an overall per-person cap on political contributions.
The resulting money flow could help the presidential candidates build robust on-the-ground voter contact and turnout operations, as well as pay for costly advertising.
The campaigns can accept only $2,700 per donor for each election, but a victory fund allows candidates to ask for more and then parcel out the money to the campaign, national political party and dozens of state parties.
"When a candidate takes that much money, they become dependent on those donors and cannot afford to act against their wishes," said Josh Silver, director of Represent.us, a group working to reduce the influence of money in politics through state-level public financing measures.