Klobuchar Nets $4.8 Million in Third Quarter: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- Amy Klobuchar raised $4.8 million in the third quarter, a total that topped her previous haul by $1 million but put her far behind most of the other candidates in the race.

The campaign said about 90% of Klobuchar’s donors gave less than $100, and the average donation was $29.78. She had 105,000 contributors in the quarter, surpassing the Democratic National Committee’s donor threshold for qualifying for the November debate.

Klobuchar is polling at 1% in the RealClearPolitics average, and has not met the polling requirement to attend the November forum. She has participated in all of the previous debates and will take part in the next one, on Oct. 15 in Westerville, Ohio.

Her third-quarter fundraising puts her far behind the top Democrats. Bernie Sanders brought in $25.3 million, Elizabeth Warren raised $24.8 million. Entrepreneur and political novice Andrew Yang raised $10 million.

Candidates must officially report third-quarter totals to the Federal Election Commission on Oct. 15.

Trump Team Seeks to Prevent Convention Fight (3:35 p.m.)

Donald Trump’s re-election effort is making progress in its push to overhaul state election rules to avert a messy convention fight, campaign officials said Monday.

The officials said they have monitored or influenced legislative or Republican Party rule changes in more than 40 states that they say will set the stage for Trump coronation at the GOP convention in Charlotte next August. The aim, one official said, is to turn the event into a four-day television commercial rather than an internal squabble between Trump’s backers and a handful of activists who want to defeat him.

Part of the effort has been to ensure that state party chairmen are Trump backers, changing delegate rules to prevent his primary opponents from winning a disproportionate number of delegates and scrapping four primaries altogether. Former Republican Representatives Joe Walsh and Mark Sanford, as well as former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld, are challenging Trump for the GOP nomination.

The officials said the moves signal to those challengers that the path to the nomination is closed. But they denied the campaign was acting from a position of weakness in fending off primary challengers, and said the changes were designed to ensure Trump enters the general election unscathed.

The campaign officials requested anonymity to discuss internal operations. -- Jordan Fabian

Harris Unveils Sweeping Parental-Leave Plan (2:56 p.m.)

Kamala Harris rolled out a proposal that would require U.S. employers to provide six months of paid family and medical leave for everyone who works, a mandate that would go well beyond the three months backed by most other 2020 Democratic candidates.

Harris’s plan would apply to private-sector and government workers, and to the self-employed and independent contractors. Those making less than $75,000 would get full wage replacement while on leave, with benefits phasing down for wealthier workers.

The plan would allow people to take the leave intermittently. The program would be funded through a combination of employer and worker payroll contributions and also through a tax increase on companies and wealthy earners. The proposal didn’t include a cost estimate.

Democratic presidential contenders, including Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, have backed legislation by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand that would create a national paid family and medical leave program allowing up to 12 weeks of compensated leave.

President Donald Trump has been supportive of a paid family and medical leave policy advocated by his daughter, Ivanka. But while his annual budget requests to Congress have included a plan for six weeks of paid leave, the proposals haven’t gotten anywhere in Congress. -- Laura Litvan

Democrat Outraises Incumbent Arizona Senator (2:42 p.m.)

Mark Kelly, the Democratic challenger of incumbent GOP Senator Martha McSally of Arizona, raised far more money in the third quarter, increasing the pressure on one of the most vulnerable Senate Republicans in 2020.

Kelly, a retired astronaut, raised $5.5 million in the quarter ending Sept. 30, with almost 150,000 contributions, his campaign said. That compares with McSally’s $3 million haul through 47,000 donations.

Kelly, the husband of former Democratic Representative Gabby Giffords, has outpaced McSally in fundraising every quarter of this year.

McSally was appointed to her seat to replace GOP Senator John McCain after he died in August 2018. A former U.S. representative, she lost her 2018 Senate race against Democrat Krysten Sinema.

McSally is one of three GOP senators who are considered the most vulnerable in 2020. Her race is rated a “toss up” by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. The other two are Cory Gardner of Colorado and Susan Collins of Maine. -- Laura Litvan

Warren Corruption Plan Could Target Trump’s Sister (9:00 a.m.)

Elizabeth Warren rolled out a new anti-corruption proposal Monday that could, if enacted, re-start a probe into the judicial behavior of President Donald Trump’s sister, a former federal appeals court judge.

Warren’s plan seeks to beef up ethical standards for judges and set up a binding process for recusal when they have possible conflicts of interest.

It also would allow investigations into judicial misconduct to continue after a judge resigns or gets elevated to the Supreme Court, meaning it would affect Maryanne Trump Barry, who quit her spot on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 2019 amid a probe of whether she’d engaged in tax fraud with her siblings.

Warren also mentioned Judge Alex Kozinski, who was accused of sexual misconduct, as someone who could be affected by her proposal.

Warren said the proposal would make sure “individuals under investigation cannot simply resign from the bench to avoid accountability.” -- Sahil Kapur

COMING UP

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation will host a town hall at UCLA devoted to LGBTQ issues on Oct. 11. Candidates scheduled to attend are: Warren Cory Booker, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Beto O’Rourke, Amy Klobuchar, Julián Castro and Tom Steyer. Bernie Sanders also is scheduled to appear, but his campaign hasn’t said whether he still plans to attend while he recovers from a heart attack.

The fourth Democratic debate is scheduled for Oct. 15th at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. Twelve candidates are slated to take part: Biden, Warren, Sanders, Booker, Buttigieg, Castro, Harris, Klobuchar and O’Rourke, as well as Tulsi Gabbard, Tom Steyer and Andrew Yang.

The United Food and Commercial Workers union will host forums in Iowa with Democratic presidential candidates on Oct. 13. Biden, Booker,Buttigieg, Harris and Michael Bennet have confirmed they attend.

--With assistance from Sahil Kapur, Laura Litvan and Jordan Fabian.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Allison in Washington DC at ballison14@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley

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