Countdown

Home > The Hanna Project > Election Year: 1992 - Clinton vs. Bush

1992 - Clinton vs. Bush

President George H.W. Bush, despite having his once-stratospheric popularity damaged by an economic slump, nevertheless starts 1992 with $7 million in his reelection war chest. That’s about 10 times the amount raised by Pat Buchanan, a Nixon and Reagan White House aide turned TV commentator, who’s challenging Bush in the GOP primaries. Unlike Bush, who can tap a network of dependable and deep-pocketed contributors, Buchanan is compelled to raise most of his money through direct-mail solicitations. (Eighty-two percent of Buchanan’s contributors give $250 or less, while 83 percent of Bush’s donations are in the $750–$1,000 range.) But Buchanan amasses enough money to spend in New Hampshire’s tiny media market that he is able to eviscerate Bush for his unkept “Read my lips: No new taxes” pledge, and he embarrasses the incumbent by taking 37 percent of the primary vote. It’s the high mark of Buchanan’s insurgency, and his shoestring campaign is soon overwhelmed by Bush’s institutional and financial advantages. By June, Bush has raised $25.6 million in contributions in addition to $8.1 million in federal matching funds.

In May, Bush vetoes legislation that would provide partial public funding to congressional candidates and limit the soft-money contributions to political parties on which presidential candidates have come to depend. (In 1988, for example, the Team 100 effort set up by chief Bush fundraiser Robert Mosbacher raked in $25 million in soft money for the GOP.) The incumbent is so deeply addicted to soft money that, at a Bush-Quayle fundraiser in Michigan in April, the official program lists five corporations as donors, which campaign aides call an “embarrassing mistake,” since corporate contributions to presidential candidates are clearly illegal. (As it turns out, the companies actually are licit GOP soft-money donors.)

The crowded Democratic primary field includes Governors Bill Clinton of Arkansas, Doug Wilder of Virginia, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, and former Governor Jerry Brown of California, in addition to Senators Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, Tom Harkin of Iowa, and Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts. Kerrey and Clinton have the easiest time attracting big donors, with $750–$1,000 gifts accounting for 43 percent of Kerrey’s fundraising take and 42 percent of Clinton’s. Although the Arkansas governor touts his humble beginnings and understanding of ordinary Americans’ problems, an analysis by the National Library on Money and Politics shows that he relies heavily on donations from an affluent, well-connected elite. Lawyers and lobbyists account for at least $1 out of every $5 that he takes in, and Wall Street executives are Clinton’s second-biggest source of funds. Employees of the investment bank Goldman, Sachs and Company and their families, for example, give nearly $100,000 to Clinton’s campaign and raise another $1 million from others on his behalf.

Harkin, in contrast, raises 73 percent of his donations in amounts of $250 or less, and Tsongas gets 60 percent of his money from similarly small donors.  Brown, who refuses to accept large donations out of principle, raises 100 percent of his money from small contributors, largely by incessantly touting a toll-free telephone number they can use to pledge money. Brown manages to win Connecticut and Colorado, but in the end, Clinton, who finishes second to Tsongas in New Hampshire and then sweeps the Super Tuesday primaries, captures the Democratic nomination.

In the general-election campaign, Bush and Clinton each receive $55.2 million in public funding. In addition, both parties set out to raise millions more in soft-money contributions to aid the candidates. The Republicans set an ambitious goal of amassing $46 million in soft money, but their effort stumbles badly, and in the end the Democrats out-raise them, $20 million to $12.5 million. The Democrats even manage to recruit a major GOP soft-money donor, agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland Company, which contributes $90,000 to the Democrats just days after it writes a $50,000 check to the RNC.

A third presidential contender emerges in the form of Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot, who champions trade protectionism and balancing the federal budget and seeks to appeal to middle-American voters alienated by the two major parties. Like Brown, Perot uses a toll-free number — not to raise money, but to recruit volunteers, since his campaign is almost entirely self-financed. (Perot contributes or lends a total of $60 million to his campaign, amounting to 93 percent of the money that he raises to run.) For a time, Perot actually leads Bush and Clinton in the polls, but he inexplicably sabotages his chances by suspending his campaign in July and then reentering the race three months late. He tries to make up for lost time by spending $37 million in October, much of it on an onslaught of television ads and infomercials.

In November, Clinton wins 43 percent of the popular vote to Bush’s 37.4 percent for Bush and Perot’s 18.9 percent; he takes the Electoral College with 370 votes to Bush’s 168 (Perot gets no electoral votes).