Hillary’s Horrible Money Problem

Just a week ago, I wrote about Hillary Clinton’s big deficit. The story of this past weekend just drives home the point that her campaign is on poor financial footing. To put it plainly, Clinton hasn’t been paying off her campaign debts. Instead, she’s been spending money on media buys and other attempts to win just a few votes.

I’m all in favor of connecting with as many voters as possible during a campaign, but I think that such a significant debt —$8.7 million owed to a wide variety of vendors — makes Clinton a far worse candidate. If an individual can’t manage the finances of a campaign, how well will she be able to manage the budget of an entire nation?

And who does Clinton owe money to? There’s a list of high-priced consultants, but there are far more small companies and organizations. Politico broke it down:

She owed Iowa’s Sioux City Art Center Board of Trustees $3,500 for catering and venue costs, New Hampshire’s Winnacunnet Cooperative School District $4,400 in event costs, Qwest $24,000 for phone service, various branches of the Iowa-based supermarket chain Hy-Vee $15,000 for food, beverages and catering, and $7,700 to Ohio and Massachusetts branches of the theatrical stage employees’ union, for equipment costs.

In fact, about a third of the nearly 700 individual debts Clinton reported at the end of February were for various types of “event expenses,” including $319,000 for catering and venue costs, $420,000 for equipment, $11,000 for photography and $9,000 for security.

Politics boils down to trust. If Clinton is losing the trust of the companies she relies on to run her campaign, how long until she loses the voters’ trust too?