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For any copyright, please send me a message. Craig Hall, the owner of the now-infamous “wine cave” in California’s Napa Valley that hosted a swanky fundraiser for Pete Buttigeig, is the type of billionaire that the Democratic presidential candidate is OK taking money from ― at least according to rules Buttigieg set for his campaign. In addition to owning a winery and being a real estate magnate, Hall oversees a financial services company and is in the art business. Since the 1980s, he’s donated more than $2.4 million to Democratic causes and served as ambassador to Austria under President Bill Clinton. But Hall is also a long-time investor in oil and gas, owning an energy company that has a dozen operating wells in Arkansas, a fact that’s been well documented in news reports over the years. Buttigieg, like most of his fellow Democratic presidential contenders, has signed a voluntary campaign finance pledge that he will not take money from fossil fuel executives. His campaign confirmed to HuffPost that he continues to abide by that pledge, as well as vows swearing off money from corporate political action committees and donations from federal lobbyists. Hall doesn’t count, the campaign argues, because he is a real estate executive who invested in fossil fuels, not the other way around. But Buttigieg’s pledge, and his courting of wealthy donors like Hall, is an example of just how fuzzy these self-imposed rules on donations can be. The pledges are all voluntary — and they are flexible. Does the fossil fuel pledge apply to investors in the fossil fuel industry? Not so, in Buttegieg’s case. Candidates also can reject corporate PAC money, but corporations can donate to issue-based PACs that may tacitly favor one candidate. Fifty-two members of Congress rejected corporate PAC money, but received a total of $2.95 million in the 2018 midterm cycle from Leadership PACs, which are almost entirely funded by corporations and industry groups, campaign finance watchdog group Open Secrets found. “These voluntary pledges raise difficult questions around line drawing,” said Brendan Fischer, a campaign finance expert with the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, which works to lessen the influence of money in politics. “The most important thing about these pledges is that candidates are signaling to voters that they recognize there is something wrong with the system, and they are not going to fully embrace it.” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) made grassroots fundraising a centerpiece of his bid for the 2016 Democratic nomination against Hillary Clinton, painting her as part of the elite political class. Since President Donald Trump’s election, the Democratic Party has zeroed in on a campaign finance reform platform; this year
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