Hillary with Magic Johnson, Aug. 22
(photo by Daily Kos user khyber900)
Where’s Hillary? You may have noticed that she hasn’t had any huge public rallies in the past couple of days, or any public appearances other than the Jimmy Kimmel show Monday night. That doesn’t, however, mean she’s home sleeping, or out playing golf, or just hanging out with the grandkids. She’s in California, doing a series of fund-raising events. That’s pretty traditional during these slow final days of August. If you’re not in the big-donor category and would like an insider report on what those fundraisers are like, go to kyber900’s detail-rich diary about the “celebration of spirit” at Magic Johnson’s house. Many people scoff at how much time the candidates spend raising money. But money is energy, and people, and what enables candidates to go out and do what needs to happen in a successful campaign. And we know Hillary has also raised millions to support a unified effort to lift the down-ticket Democrats as well. It’s also clear from kyber900’s account that these events are also mini-rallies (500+ people, not 15 around a dinner table) that generate enthusiasm and confidence.
In between events, Clinton held a conference call with small-business owners, who she called “the unsung heroes of our economy,” to showcase her plans to help small businesses — and to appeal for their support:
Clinton is proposing a new tax deduction for small businesses and offering federal incentives to encourage state and local governments to streamline regulations. The goal, says her campaign, is to make it cheaper to start a company.
Clinton says: "we want you to do what you do best: innovate, grow and hire."
She's also attacking Donald Trump, saying he's "made a career out of stiffing small business." The Republican candidate has faced lawsuits accusing him of failing to pay small companies for services and products used in his businesses.
The full plan is available on the “Briefing” section of the campaign website, along with an announcement of “Nuestros Negocios, Nuestra América” (Our businesses, Our America), a related campaign to enlist Latino small businesses to help with voter registration. Clinton also put the full plan on the business networking site LinkedIn (with a link from her Twitter account), a creative choice of platform for her intended audience:
Follow
Hillary Clinton
✔@HillaryClinton
Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. We should focus on supporting them—not stiffing them. http://hrc.io/2bfuuYE
12:50 PM - 23 Aug 2016
My plan to boost small businesses
I grew up in a small business family. My father ran a shop printing fabric for draperies, and my brothers and I would pitch in and help when things got busy. I remember him standing hour after hour
linkedin.com
1,2921,292 Retweets
3,6233,623 likes
(OK, trivia buffs with good memories: Where’s the picture from? Answer at the end of the diary.)
Tim Kaine has also been on the road. Yesterday he held a roundtable discussion with small business leaders at Primus Aerospace in Lakewood, Colorado (near Denver), a manufacturing company that has done jobs for NASA, Lockheed Martin, and Cessna Aircraft.
View image on Twitter
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Tyler Mounsey @TylerMounsey
Thank you Richard Lewis of @RTLNetworksInc for speaking with Sen Kaine about the needs of small businesses! #TKinCO
11:43 AM - 23 Aug 2016
1111 Retweets
1818 likes
The session was designed to highlight and reinforce Clinton’s small business plan. Per the Denver Post:
The five-point plan — outlined earlier in the day by Hillary Clinton — is designed to put an emphasis on the economy, a top issue in the race, even in Colorado where the unemployment rate ranks near the bottom in the nation.
To boost stagnant wage growth, Clinton and Kaine said small businesses are the linchpin. And to make it easier to start small businesses, Kaine said the administration will provide incentives to states to streamline the regulatory process; make it easier for community banks to provide loans; create a standard tax deduction for small businesses and make it easier to file taxes; use incentives to encourage companies to provide health care to employees; ensure the federal government is more responsive; and fight predatory behavior by large companies.
Still, the private hour-long event at Primus Aerospace in Lakewood served to showcase the problems facing today’s businesses. Company owners told Kaine that regulations, government gridlock, lack of qualified workers, limited access to capital and taxes are hurting their ability to grow. “It can be a maze if you’re a small business,” Kaine admitted.
Kaine reinforced the small business message in a Spanish-language tweet promoting both support for small businesses and the “Nuestros Negocios” voter registration campaign:
View image on Twitter
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Senator Tim Kaine
✔@timkaine
Lanzamos un nuevo plan para ayudar a que los pequeños negocios de latinos salgan adelante. http://hrc.io/2c3ePli
11:15 AM - 23 Aug 2016
157157 Retweets
354354 likes
Kaine did get in a few digs at the Republican candidate during the meeting,commenting on the five-fold increase in rent the campaign is now paying to Trump himself for its office space in Trump Towers (first reported in Huffington Post and highlighted in several diaries yesterday):
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine said Tuesday that Trump "has highly unusual expenditures, even in this campaign."
"So, as an example, Donald Trump is renting space in one of his buildings to his campaign and the campaign is paying Donald Trump personally for the space," Kaine said during a roundtable in Lakewood, Colorado. "Once he started to fundraise dramatically, he was self-funding for a while, but once he started to fundraise dramatically, he immediately tripled the rent payment that his campaign donors were paying him personally."
Later in the day Kaine stopped by the Clinton campaign office in Little Rock, Arkansas, Hillary’s former home town:
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