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(s)Elections See other (s)Elections Articles Title: SOME RP CAMPAIGN INFO FOR Y'ALL More than a couple of times different people have made comments regarding finances in the Ron Paul campaign. Even my friend, Peppa, one of RP's staunchest supporters, commented something to the effect that she wished he had spent more on advertising. Having been a candidate for a state house office, raised finances, and approved spending (though on nowhere near the grand scale of a presidential campaign), my interest was piqued. I am a bookkeeper by training and by major work experience, so my interest was tweaked at the same time.Thus with my interest being both piqued and tweaked, I took a look at one of his financial reports just to see what was going on. The report used in my research is for the month of January 2008, with the report being filed February 20, 2008.
TO DATE NET CONTRIBUTIONS................................32,562,115.77
Interest/Dividends as Other Receipts.................... 5,010.63
Contribution Refunds ................................... 10,335,50 The campaign did not allocate any expenses by state. This report is 2,158 pages long. Receipts start at Page 4, with 3 entries to a page, and are reported through pages 1498, which only contains 2 entries. That would disclose 4,479 donors. Starting at Page 1,499 is the listing of expenditures for the month. This is 659 pages of itemized expenditures, 3 to a pages--except the last page which was only 2 items. That would make 1,976 itemized expenditures. For my purposes, I only researched to page 1552, and only the first item on that page. It should be noted that there are some earlier dates recorded, which would seem to me to be someone late in turning in bills/receipts for payment/reimbursement. For this research project, I only looked at expenses posted during the first 10 days of the month (this period has several 'earlier' receipts which are being reimbursed apparently during this time frame). So, keep in mind that these expenditures are only for a third of the month.
TOTAL EXPENDITURES FOR THIS 10-DAY PERIOD....... $ 3,018,046 For the record, the small amounts that didn't have a "% of Disbursements" figure, amount to $7,396, or .3%. Adding up the obvious Bulk Mailing, Radio, TV, Buttons, Shirts, Signs, Print Advertising, etc., gives a total of $2,035,384, or 67% of the expenditures for this time period. I didn't set a criteria for myself to look at the name on each individual entry, though it seems like I did, or nearly always so. I do not recall seeing any items specifically for a radio station or tv station, i.e., KPAX TV or KFI 900. Does anyone have any idea on what the typical advertising % is? I don't. I did not include Telecommunications in this number, as I'm not sure what all was put in there. The Credit Card Processing Fees were astounding to me. I'm aware that Visa, et al, charge merchants a varying fee schedule, and know Pay Pal does as well, but I wouldn't have considered it as capable of taking a large chunk of change....the third largest expense! Because of my having campaigned, I'm aware that notary fees are involved because of all the filings that have to take place. Speaking of filings, the Filing Fee in the list was for Louisiana. If all states charged the same amount, every campaign would have to pay out over half a million dollars just to the 50 states! And how about those Voter Lists. There were only 2 entries, but yet that took $12,000. Ballot Access Coordination, Petition Coordination, Consultants, and Polling companies--while not huge amounts--at least not on this report--can add up quickly. An interesting tidbit--there is an expense paid to the Tancredo campaign for $1500. It is coded office supplies. This tells me the RP people were being cost conscious and picked up on a good deal. Hopefully, these figures will give some of you fine people something to chew over when you contemplate what Ron Paul woulda, coulda, shoulda done with the campaign. Furthermore, I would hope that it would be a bit instructive to some of you who believe he shoulda gone third party. Treated as the bastard child, such candidates have to pay full bore for everything--from lawyers fighting states election laws and election law determinations by some bureaucrat, to having to have ballot access coordinators, petition coordinators, and, of course, buying voter lists from the various states or counties. And a final comment.........it looks like people can ask for their beer money back.
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#1. To: Peppa, Cynicom, angle, buckeye (#0)
Ping to let you know I was thinkin of ya. Thanks, Pep, for letting me use your name without knowing exactly where I was going with it.
Thanks, Pep, for letting me use your name without knowing exactly where I was going with it. Thanks Rowdee, This was one heck of a report! Looks to me at first glance, he ran a tight ship.. No debt, no scandals, dammit, can't you come up with something red meat? ;)
I didn't find anything that raised hackles or raised red flags. I was even happy to see some accountant fees in there. The amount listed certainly wouldn't cover an audit, but at this point in the game, I doubt an audit would be needed. Perhaps this amount covers report preparations of some type, or a retainer type arrangement whereby staff is 'supervised' and someone is available to answer campaign finance type questions. I'm tempted to peruse the rest of the report and see what else is in there in the way of expenses, but I'm strapped for time presently. Another avenue I want to look at is the December report. I didn't come across a lot of staff salaries. I'm sure they are NOT volunteers, and thats fine...not everyone can give of their time freely to help legitimate causes. BUt out in the work world, salaries and wages, along with related perks, make up a major part of operating expenses.
It would be good to see monthly accountings, and the '07 closeout. To me, the snapshot was pretty darn tight, and I was surprised at the % to advtsg. I would guess finance staff had a number of things on their minds... one, money bombs don't go on forever without strong showings, two, if in for the long haul, one must plan to take on future frontrunners.. so thrift is necessary and three... one of the larger points you make, as the bastard child, he's not getting a cutrate. With that in mind, having funds avail mid-mo J, for SuperT, was a sign of tight planning, imho.
Oh, I agree with you about having funds available. Even contractors have a contingency fund built into their bids (that is, of course, if they are wise businessmen)--back when my husbandy was a GC, it was 10%; I don't have any idea of what would be considered smart in todays' world. I'm really thinking of reviewing the rest of the month to see if it stayed essentially the same....but I'd really like to look into December 2007--that was when the big money bomb action took place. I'd like to see what transpired from mid to end of month. Who knows.......maybe even go back to say, the month of September....or a time when it was really lean.... But right now I just can't. My Mother is moving up here this weekend, and I will have people to entertain for several days, including a niece I've never met (one of my deceased brothers' daughters) and Mom's pastor. Can you believe it--he and his wife are going to follow behind my Mom's car all the way up here to make sure she gets here safely? He was even wanting to rent a van and just haul her car!
I'm really thinking of reviewing the rest of the month to see if it stayed essentially the same....but I'd really like to look into December 2007--that was when the big money bomb action took place. I'd like to see what transpired from mid to end of month. I think the Boston Tea Party money bomb was mid D, however, I remember an email from the campaign that asked for donations early in Dec., to allow buy time for ads. So, D07 is going to be pretty skewed I would think. It'd be fun to check it out R, but only if you have time to kill, which obviously you don't!!! But right now I just can't. My Mother is moving up here this weekend, and I will have people to entertain for several days, including a niece I've never met (one of my deceased brothers' daughters) and Mom's pastor. Can you believe it--he and his wife are going to follow behind my Mom's car all the way up here to make sure she gets here safely? He was even wanting to rent a van and just haul her car! Wow that is more than kind of her pastor! Fantastic! You are gonna be verrrry busy. Check in when you can!! Good luck! :)
I'll certainly try to check in........I'm safe til about Sunday evening/early Monday morning. :) Re collecting the big bomb, I'm anxious to see the expense side. December was the big bomb, and January was the little one, as I recall.
#28. To: rowdee (#27)
(Edited)
LOL good! Re collecting the big bomb, I'm anxious to see the expense side. December was the big bomb, and January was the little one, as I recall. I took a quick look at ronPaul Graphs http://www.ronpaulgraphs.com/ MoneyBomb graph here: www.ronpaulgraphs.com/direct ory.html? First MB on 11/5; shot heard round the world. Then on to TPty, 12/16. Just thinking there might have been a ramp in expense side beyond original plan. 1107 EOM v 1207 EOM could look very different. Edit: After posting, a brain cell called and said it remembered something about RP making significant adds to his staff. Probably in prep for the IW caucus & NH Primary. www.ronpaulgraphs.com
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