The Note: Jeb Bush, The $114 Million Man
— -- NOTABLES
--IN THE MONEY: Jeb Bush's super PAC, Right to Rise, will report having raised $103 million over the first half of the year. His campaign took in $11.4 million in just two weeks, ABC's CHRIS GOOD notes. "We are grateful for the overwhelming response from the thousands of donors who have been drawn to Jeb's optimistic message of conservative renewal and reform," according to a release from the PAC. By comparison, Mitt Romney's super PAC, Restore Our Future, raised $12 million over the first half of 2011. Obama's super PAC, Priorities USA Action, didn't crack $4 million in either half of 2011. Down the stretch, in October 2012, those committees each raised about $15 million per month, which means Bush's has surpassed the fall 2012 pace for Obama and Romney super this early in 2015. Bush has a huge lead on 2016 competitors, with a combined haul of $114.4 million. By comparison, Hillary Clinton raised $45 million in campaign money, according to The New York Times, and $15.6 million in super PAC money.
--MOOK SPOOKED: Hillary Clinton's campaign is using Jeb Bush's massive fundraising numbers to help with their own fundraising. Campaign manager Robby Mook sent an e-mail to supporters last night asking for contributions, ABC's LIZ KREUTZ reports. "Jeb Bush has raised $114 million in the last six months," Mook wrote in the appeal. "His team called it the 'shock and awe' approach to fundraising. We're not shocked, and we're certainly not in awe. But let me be clear -- this is a big problem for us. We may not be able to keep pace with Jeb but we believe that a grassroots movement funded by and for everyday Americans can take him on."
--ANALYSIS -- ABC's RICK KLEIN: A new chapter has just been opened. The unprecedented and eye-popping $103 million brought in by Jeb Bush's super PAC over the first half of the year brings a modicum of clarity to the GOP field, along with some new rules of presidential politics. For starters, Bush has to be considered the frontrunner at this point, simply based on the math. It's highly unlikely that any of his rivals will be anywhere close to having the $114 million at his direct or indirect disposal at this stage. (And keep in mind he's been a formal candidate for less than a month.) Secondly, and perhaps more significantly, the strings to the biggest purse will be controlled thousands of miles from Bush's Miami headquarters. This amount of money, at the control of Mike Murphy in Los Angeles, will mean heretofore basic campaign functions - advertising, most prominently, but not exclusively - will be handled by an outside entity. This is a major change in how campaigns are conducted - and Jeb won't be the last to have his operation shift in this fashion.
THIS WEEK ON 'THIS WEEK': 2016 GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina comes to "This Week" Sunday. Plus, Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., discusses the Iran nuclear talks. And the powerhouse roundtable debates all the week's politics, with Republican strategist and pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson, Democratic strategist and CNN political commentator Van Jones, ABC News' Cokie Roberts, and Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren. Be sure to use #ThisWeek when you tweet about the program. TUNE IN SUNDAY: http://abcnews.go.com/thisweek
WEEKEND PLANNER -- TRUMP TO GIVE SPEECH 'ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND NUMEROUS OTHER TOPICS.' Originally slated for the Arizona Biltmore hotel, it's now happening at the Phoenix Convention Center on Saturday. According to a Trump aide: "Due to the overwhelming response for Saturday's Rally in Phoenix, Arizona the venue has been changed to accommodate the thousands of people expected to attend and the event will now take place at the Phoenix Convention Center."
THE BUZZ
BERNIE BASHES BUSH ON FUNDRAISING HAUL. Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders called out Jeb Bush by name several times at a panel event in Arlington, Virginia last night. Sanders went after the Republican contender on his recent statement that "people need to work longer hours" as well as the news that Bush's Super PAC raked in more than $100 million in its first quarter of fundraising, ABC's RYAN STRUYK notes. "Today we learned that Jeb Bush's Super PAC raised over $100 million in a few months. And this money is clearly coming from the wealthiest people in this country which raises the profound issue of this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision. And the fact that Bush's donors, people like Sheldon Adelson, and most significantly the Koch brothers, their efforts are now undermining the foundations of American democracy."
--AND SANDERS DIDN'T STOP THERE: "It's not an accident that Jeb Bush and other Republican candidates who take huge amounts of money from the wealthy and the powerful come home with an agenda that represents the wealthy and the powerful. And some of you may know the American people work the longest hours of anyone in the industrialized world," he said. "And yet, at a time when 85 percent of men are working, 65 percent of women who are working, now work more than 40 hours a week, Jeb Bush thinks that's not enough, and working men and women need to work longer hours."
ABOUT LAST NIGHT -- A BUSH AND CLINTON SHARE A STAGE. Former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton shared a stage in Dallas at the George W. Bush Presidential Library last night. They briefly talked about the presidential contest that is already pitting their two families against each other, ABC's MATTHEW CLAIBORNE notes, but they revealed themselves to be great friends and jokesters. "I'm confident Jeb and Hillary will elevate the discourse. I can't speak for their surrogates," Bush said. "Except for this surrogate. But I'm not a surrogate." Clinton gave a shout out to Hillary, "We got a lot of tough decisions to make. That's all I care about besides I know who I'd like to win!" Clinton also shared a story about granddaughter, Charlotte. "Hillary and I had our granddaughter for three days and I had to leave her and Hillary was ecstatic. And for the first time when I came home, Hilary pointed and said look there's your grandfather and she pointed at me. That meant more to me than anything in the world." Bush chimed in: "Last time my granddaughter spoke to me it was in Mandarin."
PROTESTERS ON BOTH SIDES OF DONALD TRUMP DEBATE MEET ON DC STREETS. Donald Trump doesn't seem to have many fans these days, but on the streets of Washington, D.C., yesterday at least a dozen supporters showed up to give the Republican presidential candidate and real estate mogul a boost, ABC's JILL ORNITZ, LOUISE SIMPSON and SUMMER FIELDS note. As Trump doubles down on his controversial comments about Mexican immigrants that have reverberated on the campaign trail over the past week, the sidewalk outside the construction site of the Trump Hotel in the nation's capital became yet another stage in the ongoing debate about the polarizing billionaire. "He's a nice person," said Clyde Dyce, who described himself as a former employee of one of Trump's business ventures. "He's not a racist. He was nice to me and my family." But they were clearly outnumbered by a much larger contingent of Trump detractors who organized a protest meant to call Trump out on his comments about Mexicans. Some even urged a halt to construction of the $200 million hotel project. "It's enough. It's enough with the racial slurs, the stereotyping of Latinos," said Roy Molina, a self-identified Republican who protested outside the hotel. "I'm ashamed, right now, of the Republican Party." http://abcn.ws/1HQOn7k
OBAMA PRESSURED TO TAKE BACK BILL COSBY'S PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM. President Obama is under mounting pressure to revoke a Presidential Medal of Freedom bestowed on embattled comedian Bill Cosby by former President George W. Bush in 2002, ABC's JOHN PARKINSON notes. But even if he wanted to take it away, does he have the presidential power to make it happen? A budding petition launched Wednesday on whitehouse.gov urging the president to take action had collected about 2,000 signatures as of this morning. At least 100,000 signatures are required for the White House to provide an official response to the petition. PAVE, a nonprofit organization dedicated to sexual assault prevention and survivor empowerment, began the online petition Wednesday. When asked Wednesday whether the president is considering taking action, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest indicated it hadn't reached the Resolute desk, referring to the desk Obama uses in the Oval Office. "I haven't, at this point, heard any discussion of taking that step," Earnest told reporters during the daily press briefing. http://abcn.ws/1HQzorW
WHO'S TWEETING?
@mviser: Asked whether a deal is possible this weekend, John Kerry says at the start of a meeting with allies, "We're working hard. We're pushing."
@jonward11: always read @kenvogel on big $ in politics http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/dawn-of-the-super-pac-era-119936.html ...
@SusanPage: ICYMI: My interview with Bush (George W.) & Clinton (Bill), in which they talk about Bush (Jeb) v. Clinton (Hillary). http://usat.ly/1Mj6K2A
@NickKalmanFN: .@ChrisChristie 's first TV ad of 2016, called 'Leadership' and featuring some of his announcement speech. http://youtu.be/hKuidwMSgKI
@mateagold: That time Jeb Bush invited 300 top donors to his parent's house, via @edatpost in Kennebunkport http://wpo.st/Bb6Q0
Related Stories
ABC News Live