The Update Desk: Who Loves Me, Baby? (4)

We are now in week four of my social experiment with the top ten Dems running for president.

If you're new to this one, I decided (and I confess, I might have been drinking,...) to sign up for emails from the campaigns of all the contenders who qualified for the 'single-stage' debate in Houston earlier this month.  The point? To see what's on their mind, and what they want to be on my mind as I look to find a candidate with whom I can move forward.

Here's the link to last week's update, which includes updates to all of the previous articles in this series, and the highlights from the post:

How did we do in week three?

• I received 175 emails by this afternoon's deadline, 35 more than last week; 76% directly asked for money.
• Kamala Harris sent me 29 emails, followed by Cory Booker (24), Joe Biden (22), and Elizabeth Warren (20). At the other end of the scale, Bernie Sanders and Julian Castro (12 each) were trailed only by Amy Klobuchar (8)...  
• On the asking for money part, Sanders led the way, with 92% of his emails making a direct pitch for money. He was followed closely by Warren (90%) and Klobuchar (88%).  The one asking for money the least? Beto, with only 65% of his emails making a blatant pitch.

And this week?

• Email volume overall was down. I only received 159, compared to last week's 175, but the percentage that directly asked for money was up -- from 76% to 82% (131 emails).
• Individually, most of them slowed down at least a little, since we didn't have a debate staring us in the face. Kamala Harris reached out the most, with 27 emails. Joe Biden (23), Cory Booker (21) and Elizabeth Warren (19) were also in the top tier, with Andrew Yang (14), Beto O'Rourke, (13), Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders  and Julian Castro (11 each) and Mayor Pete (9) rounding out the list.
• Who wanted my money the most? That would be Andrew Yang; 100% of his emails had a direct ask for money. Biden and Klobuchar (91%), Harris (85%), Booker (81%) and Warren (80%) were also pretty good at pushing the donations. Buttigieg (78%), Sanders (73%), Beto (62%) and Castro (60%) trailed here. 

And I can get on the donor wall, get a phone call from a candidate - and they don't care if I've made up my mind yet, they'll still take my money.  Both Biden and Harris sent emails with a subject line 'Bernie Sanders' which I thought was odd; they mentioned Bernie hitting 1,000,000 donors and how that meant I had to step up my game to keep them in the mix.

It's a lot of pressure on me, I have to say.

What else are they talking about? Trump and Ukraine, especially the Biden team. Impeachment and how much fun they're having in Iowa are common to all campaigns. Beto's still talking a little about pot, more about guns. And Bernie? He wants to wipe out billionaires. Seriously - take a look at these excerpts from his email with the subject "Billionaires should not exist"

And in order to reduce the outrageous level of inequality that exists in America today and to rebuild the disappearing middle class, the time has come for the United States to establish an annual tax on the extreme wealth of the top 0.1 percent of U.S. households.

Our tax on extreme wealth would only apply to the wealthiest households in America and would cut the wealth of billionaires in half over 15 years — which would substantially break up the concentration of wealth and power of this small, privileged class.

Now, I have never understood how someone could have tens and hundreds of billions of dollars and feel the desperate need for even more. I would think that with the amount of money the 0.1 percent of this country has, they might just be able to get by. 

I'm curious as to why Sanders only wants to take away half of their wealth, or how he thinks they'll have less power if they only have $50B instead of $100B or more, and why he thinks they feel the desperate need for more money. I guess they're supposed to just quit their jobs and shutter their companies to avoid making more? (Clearly, as regular readers know, I'm not a Sanders fan.)

As with prior weeks, they are not talking about jobs (0 emails), education (0), the economy (1), immigration (0), foreign policy (0), climate change (1) or barely mention health insurance (2). Warren has updated both her shopping options and her website with a special place just for her plans.

With the end-of-quarter FEC deadline only four days away, I expect the money pressure to ramp up significantly over the next couple of days. I also expect to see more emails about Trump, impeachment, and the debate requirements after today's goings-on in DC.

Stay tuned.