Andrew Yang, and the money game. Your money, his success.

Not a politician. Really?

Still looking for donations after dropping out. Really? And these images are from his web site, weeks after he dropped out.

Still looking for money and still claiming “Not a politician.” Really? Looking for money is what politicians do.

As you know, politicians are well known for begging for money. It costs a great deal to be elected to Congress, a lot more for the Senate and a huge amount to the presidency.

And as you may not know, when our current president started his campaign he boasted that he was so rich that he was 100% self-funded. Really? I did wonder why his campaign website had a donation button on its front page? But that’s another story.

In any instance, I still get a selection of begging letters from senatorial and other candidates, but the one who has taken begging to an art form level is Andrew Yang, the topic of this roast.

Andrew Yang came out of nowhere to run for president, or so he claimed. For some reason, he was brash enough and raised money fast enough to get the media’s attention.

You may not know but if you want to win, you have to have a LOT of money. The press uses that metric for determining if they write articles about you so you become known.

Being known is everything. If you aren’t, the public won’t click that box. Period.

The vast majority of the public has no idea of what a candidate promises to do or his or her ideas, but just “likes” a candidate so clicks that button on election day… that’s about it. That’s considered to be an informed decision. I think that every country has this problem.

President Trump got billions of dollars of free coverage. He won because of the media, that now dislikes him and writes any negative story that they can think of. Real or imagined. What was the media thinking… assuming that they collectively did. I’m not sure that they were, but wanted a “Court Jester” for entertainment value. We got one.

So the secret to Andrew Yang’s success, in my opinion, was the constant badgering of his mailing list. It was very large, as he offered free monthly incomes to a small group of subscribers in a drawing similar to MegaMillions lottery.

When people entered, they were added to the Yang Gang “supporters” email list. As you know millions of people play each week but only a very, very few win. Hope springs eternal.

He also appealed to voters, as he wasn’t a politician (he is now) and he had ideas that appealed to them, whatever they were. Usually it’s something “free,” meaning increasing the national debt until our nation goes bankrupt.

I suspect that if you ask a Yang supporter what are those ideas, they’ll give you a blank look. Yang had momentum and that’s all that mattered.

In my instance, since September when I got onto his “chip in” begging series of emails, I received 341 messages and only two that didn’t ask for money! That’s over two nagging emails a day, every day of the week filling up the inbox!

I never donated, so the emails became more mail-merge customized, integrated with their mailing list to pressure me to make that first donation. And as the first donation is the most difficult to get from the “supporters,” or people who surrender to the email barrage, I suspect that I would have received four emails a day, not two, begging for another “chip in” thereafter.

You’ll note the date in the image above – February 11, was the day he dropped out of the race still asking for money!

I had noticed that he was unable to reach his fundraising goals in the recent weeks leading up to when he dropped out, so I think he gave up trying to extract “chip in” money, as the well was dry. So he moved on as staying in the race not be a good financial decision.

Remember he described himself as the “Asian math guy.” That means he watched the money flow, and probably lives looking at spreadsheets, and when the money flow slowed down he was gone.

The question is, where to and what did he accomplish?

So here’s what I think. Mr. Yang knew from the beginning that he wasn’t going to win the presidency. What he did know, is that with enough of other people’s money and a good sales pitch, he would become very well known so could run again in New York, for Chuck Schumer’s Senate job in two years and use leftover donations. Plus his fame would open doors to other lucrative opportunities in the meantime. He isn’t dumb.

He has a good chance of getting Schumer’s job and becoming even richer and very powerful.

So why didn’t he just run for Schumer’s Senate seat in two years? Money. By running for president, and with a good marketing pitch he could solicit money from all fifty states and not just one, New York. That created a “war chest” of national money that can be focused on New York when ready.

I looked at the Federal Election Commission’s latest donation and spending report and found that Mr. Yang donated $6,000, enough money to enter the race, but then loaned himself $48,000 to get the process moving.

He loaned it to his campaign so he could repay himself later – which he did – using donor’s money. Once donated by a candidate, it’s gone. Once loaned to the campaign, it can be repaid and was. That’s why candidates loan themselves money. You donate, they loan.

If you look at these FEC tables below, you’ll see that he raised $38.4 million through the end of January, repaid his loan and had other expenditures of $34.5 million, leaving nearly $4 million of cash. The final numbers are not available yet.

So what happens to the $4 million in cash that’s in his campaign bank account. By law, he cannot use it for his own personal use, but he can donate it to charity, give to other candidates to buy favors, use in another campaign such as a Senate run or… imagine that, (I think) return a prorated amount to his donors.

He is also well known to the other presidential candidates, so may be looking to become vice president, and if a sufficiently old candidate wins and dies in office, he “wins” the presidency.

Which of the four options do you think he’ll do with the $4 million? You’re right. Which is the least likely scenario. You’re probably right about that as well.

Yes, he may not have been a politician when he started his quest, but he is a politician now. He is impressive. Watch him. He has a future.

But in the meantime… your money, his success.

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It was just announced that Pete Buttigieg announced that he “suspended” his campaign for president. He raised $87 million as of January 31, spent $76 million and has $6.6 million left over.

I think that the thought of continuing the campaign into Super Tuesday, where he would have to advertise in fourteen states for the March 4 primary was too expensive to consider. Better he save the money for another local campaign, just like I think Yang will do.

He is now unemployed. Not for long.

He is better off saving that money for his Senate race in which state he moves to and continue his political career the standard way… which is usually statehouse, House of Representatives, Senate and then President. He will skip some steps and go straight to the Senate.

The reason why so many senators run for president is that they are elected every six years, so they can lose and still keep their jobs.

Nothing like double dipping.