Bernie Sanders Leading in Campaign Contributions
COSTELLO: Bernie Sanders is burning the competition when it comes to campaign donations. The Democratic hopeful says he now has had 2.3 million individual campaign contributions, all of this without a single dime coming from a super PAC. Last night, Sanders name dropped another top Democrat, showing just how impressive it all is.</s>SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That is more contributions that have come into a campaign than any campaign in American history up until this point. So Obama did very, very well in both 2008 and 2012. At this particular point, we are doing better. We do not have to be dependent on large corporations or the wealthy and the powerful. We can run a campaign based on contributions averaging $30 a piece from the middle class and working families. So that's pretty revolutionary and I am proud of that.</s>COSTELLO: Despite Hillary Clinton's dominant poll lead, her camp appears worried, sending this e-mail to supporters after Saturday's debate. Quote, "I don't know how else to say it except by saying it, we could lose the nomination. The other candidates on that stage last night would like nothing more than for our team to sit back and relax right now, but I'm not taking anything for granted and you can't either. I need your help." The icing on the cake for Bernie Sanders, though, well, maybe, a mock election that hasn't been wrong in 40 years declares he, yes, Bernie Sanders, will be our next president. With me now is Rick Hardy, director of the Centennial Honors College in Western Illinois University. He also co-created this rather reliable mock election. Welcome, sir.</s>RICK HARDY, DIR. OF THE CENTENNIAL HONORS COLLEGE WESTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY: Well, thank you, Carol. It's an honor to be on your show this morning.</s>COSTELLO: Thanks for being with me. So tell me about this mock election. Who votes? How is it done?</s>HARDY: Well, actually I've been doing the mock elections since 1975 or so. It started at the University of Iowa, then for 30 years at the University of Missouri. I came back to Western Illinois University, my alma mater, and that's when we did a campus-wide mock election and we simulate everything from the Iowa caucuses all the way to the Electoral College vote. It's truly a campus-wide simulation. And we started in 2007. And our students selected Barack Obama. And a lot of people thought that was unrealistic, but it turned out to be right on the -- on the mark.</s>COSTELLO: So you say you have a 100 percent success rate. So besides Barack Obama, what are your other success stories?</s>HARDY: Well, we had, at Western, is when we've been doing this. We had, in 2007, we try to do it one year before the actual presidential election. And then we did it in 2011. He won re-election over the Republican team of Romney and Ryan. How about that for accuracy? And then this time I don't know how accurate it's going to be. Certainly the students selected Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic side. And on the Republican side, maybe unrealistic, they selected Jeb Bush, although that was a brokered convention.</s>COSTELLO: Oh.</s>HARDY: That was a brokered convention and he won over Donald Trump. And nobody actually got the majority vote. We had to go with a -- we had to go with the plurality on that.</s>COSTELLO: Interesting.</s>HARDY: So -- yes.</s>COSTELLO: So your students think it will be a brokered convention on the Republican side?</s>HARDY: Well, the Republican side, they had a devil of a time selecting all of the candidates. I think Trump did very well. Why did -- why did Jeb Bush do so well, Carol, you might ask, is because he sent in a video clip promoting Western. We had an outstanding group of student leaders, particularly their campaign manager, and they were able to pull together a coalition. Now, I don't know whether that is going to hold true in the long run, but, Carol, you might also note that some of the candidates -- we didn't think some of the candidates like Bobby Jindal and Gilmore and Pataki, the students long ago saw that they were going nowhere, so they gravitate towards the more -- the more credible candidates as it was.</s>COSTELLO: Interesting. OK, so let's center on Bernie Sanders for just a second.</s>HARDY: Sure. Yes.</s>COSTELLO: Because you say this might spoil your perfect record, that the students might be wrong in this case. Where do you think that?</s>HARDY: Well, Carol, let me say, I thought they were going to be wrong with Barack Obama in 2007. I mean think about that. Think about the fact that that time everyone thought Hillary Clinton was the odds-on favorite to win the nomination and the presidency. What I found out in 2007 is that Barack Obama appealed to young people and Hillary didn't even get very much traction among the feminists on the campus, which is a signal that, you know, some -- she has to be very careful. Same thing this last year in 2015, this -- in October, she failed to get a lot of traction among young people. Bernie appeals to them. And I think part of it is my generation grew up thinking capitalism and entrepreneurship is the way to go. Their generation is hearing about social justice. And when Bernie Sanders talks about free education, free college education and universal health care, it strikes a chord with a lot of students who are struggling to get through school. So don't underestimate his appeal there.</s>COSTELLO: I'm not and I hear you, the only thing is the appeal of Barack Obama was two-fold, right? They liked his policies, but he was a transformational candidate in their eyes and that excited them enough to go to the polls and young people notoriously do not go to the polls.</s>HARDY: Well, you're right about that, but we have an old saying in politics. There is no substitute for experience unless you're 19 years old. That's because 19-year-olds will help you with campaigns. They will canvas, they will do phone banking, do a lot of things to help candidates get exposure out there. And you're right about their voter turnout. I think with the Democrats this year, they will have to do well among young people. I think they are. Bernie is doing particularly well. But I might also add that on the Republican side, even though Jeb Bush did not win on our mock election, he still got a lot of the popular vote. He was much closer than the electoral college vote indicated. And final thing I'll say, Carol, in this is that ours is an exercise to teach students about the process. We engage thousands of students across the campus. We had students from music, art, ROTC, economics, agriculture. It was about the process and if it comes out that we end up predicting, perhaps successfully, that's an after thought. So our main concern is the process.</s>COSTELLO: You're a good man, Rick Hardy. Thanks so much for being with me.</s>HARDY: Appreciate it. Thanks.</s>COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, despite legal efforts to keep them out, protesters say they're heading to the Mall of America. But not everybody can show up. We'll talk with one Black Lives Matters organizer who was barred from today's protest.