Friday, January 03, 2014

FEC Report Roundup: First Quarter 2013

I’m still playing catch up with the quarterly FEC Reports.  This post covers the 1st quarter 2013, January – March.

You can browse these reports yourself at www.fec.gov.  As always I apologize in advance for any errors or misinterpretations.  I am neither a lawyer nor an accountant, just an interested observer and these thoughts should be taken as such. 

Where there are two numbers separated by a slash, the first is the amount for this quarter and the second is the amount for the election cycle.

Watch the itemized (over $250 donations), unitemized (smaller donations), and PAC ratios.  In open races or in challenger’s reports, there are usually fewer PAC donations.  They like to stick with people they are fairly certain are going to win. 

Reports can be arranged alphabetically by donor (which makes it easy to track multiple donations by any one individual, unless they made more than one donation at once), chronologically (which makes it easy to see when the campaign held fundraisers), or scrambled (which is just a pain to deal with).

UPDATE:  Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz (13th district) is running for governor.  She is still filing FEC reports but they are not included here and will be dealt with separately.

6th Congressional District

Jim Gerlach, Republican (incumbent)

Receipts
Itemized 112,150.00
Unitemized 300.00
Total of Contributions from Individuals 112,450.00 / 112,950.00
Political Party Committees:  0.00 / 0.00
PACs:  182,000.00 / 189,000.00
The Candidate:    0.00 / 0.00
Total Contributions:  294,450.00 / 301,950.00
Loans Made by the Candidate:  0.00 / 0.00
Offsets to Operating Expenditures (Refunds, etc.):  14,723.08 / 14,723.08
Other Receipts:  461.09 / 974.27
Total Receipts:  309,634.17 / 317,647.35
Disbursements
Operating Expenditures:  86,449.59 / 161,855.41 
Refunds 0.00 / 1,000.00
Other Disbursements: 100.00 / 100.00
Total Disbursements: 86,549.59 / 162,955.41
Cash Summary.
Cash On Hand At Beginning Of Reporting Period 254,009.30
Total Receipts 309,634.17
Total Disbursements 86,549.59  
Cash On Hand At Close Of The Reporting Period 477,093.88

Gerlach’s reports are arranged chronologically not alphabetically so it is hard to track multiple donations from the same person.  That being said, 14 of the 69 itemized donations were from out of state.  There were 6 donations of $5200, the total amount allowed for the election cycle.  Among his donors were some Republican heavy hitters, Manny Stamatakis, Dr. John M. Templeton, Jr., and Nick DeBenedictis.  There are also donations from two executives at Boston Beer Company.  Among the PAC donations there are four trucking related PACs, several medical PACs, and a smattering of restaurant and insurance industry PACs.  There is also a donation from a for profit education group.

In disbursements the campaign is making monthly payments to the Gula Graham Group and Power 8 Political Consulting.  In addition the campaign has hired an individual fundraising  consultant / FEC compliance person.  There are payments of around $4600 for a thank you party at a place called Teca.  That must have been some party. 


7th Congressional District

Pat Meehan, Republican (incumbent)

Receipts
Itemized 123,400.00
Unitemized 2,467.00
Total of Contributions from Individuals 125,867.00 / 128,917.00
Political Party Committees:  0.00
PACs:  81,500.00 / 84,560.11
The Candidate:    0.00 / 153.66
Total Contributions:  207,367.00 / 213,630.77
Loans Made by the Candidate: 
Offsets to Operating Expenditures (Refunds, etc.):  0.00
Total Receipts:  207,367.00 / 213,666.77
Disbursements
Operating Expenditures:  153,706.43 / 264,934.57
Other Disbursements: 0.00
Total Disbursements: 153,706.43 / 264,934.57
Cash Summary.
Cash On Hand At Beginning Of Reporting Period 1,007,477.33
Total Receipts 207,367.00
Total Disbursements 153,706.43  
Cash On Hand At Close Of The Reporting Period 1,061,137.90 

Meehan’s reports are also arranged chronologically.  There are 10 (of 68) out of state donations.  There were 22 donations totaling $5200 so they cannot donate again in this election cycle.  Among the notables are Vahan and Danielle Guerghian.  Other donors include a laundry owner and assorted CEOs.  Some donors are listed as Meehan Majority Makers.  There are PAC donations from the aerospace industry represented by Airline Pilots, Air Traffic Controllers, Lockheed and Boeing, and then from pharmaceutical industry PACs Merck and Astra Zenica.  There is a donation from JEB PAC.

In disbursements, the campaign paid $13K for lawn signs.  They also paid for an EZPass, and for cable tv.  There were 3 paid employees.  The Theodore Co received just under $10K for fundraising.  Chris Mottola consulting was paid $28K.  There must have been some drama with a campaign office, as there are payments for rent, for moving, and 3600 to a firm that does waterproofing and other types of repair.  In addition to local political campaigns Meehan donated $2000 to Christie for Governor.  The campaign reimbursed Patrick Meehan, Jr. for expenses, and reimbursed Meehan’s leadership fund, Patriots Leading a Majority. 


8th Congressional District

Mike Fitzpatrick, Republican (incumbent)

Receipts
Itemized 173,325.00
Unitemized 27,853.16
Total of Contributions from Individuals 201,178.16 / 206,723.16
Political Party Committees: 0.00 
PACs:  100,470.00 / 104,470.00
The Candidate: 0.00  
Total Contributions:  301,648.16 / 311,193.16
Loans Made by the Candidate:  0.00
Offsets to Operating Expenditures (Refunds, etc.):  491.00 / 491.00
Other Receipts:  13.02 / 37.86
Total Receipts:  302,152.18 / 311,722.02
Disbursements
Operating Expenditures:  140,756.93 / 254,316.50
Other Disbursements: 0.00
Total Disbursements: 140,756.93 / 254,316.50
Cash Summary.
Cash On Hand At Beginning Of Reporting Period 114,083.20
Total Receipts 302,152.18
Total Disbursements 140,756.93 
Cash On Hand At Close Of The Reporting Period 275,478.45 

Fitzpatrick’s reports are arranged chronologically.  Of the 172 itemized donations, nine were from out of state and 12 were for more than $5,200, the total allowed in this election cycle.  As with other reports, it is difficult to see who many of those people donated again, given the arrangement of the report.  Among notables donating are William Sasso and Thomas Manion.  A number of people at Teletronics Technical Company donated, as did a group of people who work at Merck.  There are also clusters of health care system owners, care dealers and mechanics.  The president of the Seoul National University donated, as did a librarian, artist, nurse, teacher, and some local business owners.  In PACs there are a number of local political committees that donated, and a cluster of finance related PACs.  The US Cuban Democracy PAC donated as did the JEB Fund. 

In disbursements there are payments for a rental car and gas payments.  There are payments to Olive Garden, Temperance House, and the US House Members Dining Hall, as well as plane, train, and hotel costs.  The campaign made several small payments to Federal Express.  LN consulting and KC Consulting were each paid about $6K.  The Theodore consulting company received nearly $9K. 


13th Congressional District (open seat) 

Valerie Arkoosh, Democrat   

Receipts
Itemized 214,250.00
Unitemized 2,515.00
Total of Contributions from Individuals 216,765.00
Political Party Committees:  0.00
PACs:  1,500.00
The Candidate: 0.00   
Total Contributions: 218,265.00
Loans Made by the Candidate:  0.00
Offsets to Operating Expenditures (Refunds, etc.): 0.00 
Total Receipts:  218,265.00
Disbursements
Operating Expenditures:  3,802.61
Other Disbursements: 0.00
Total Disbursements: 3,802.61
Cash Summary.
Cash On Hand At Beginning Of Reporting Period 0.00
Total Receipts 218,265.00
Total Disbursements 3,802.61 
Cash On Hand At Close Of The Reporting Period  214,462.39

About half of her donations came from out of state.  The report is scrambled so it is difficult to track whether or not the donations are from the same people.  There were 28 listings for donations of $5200, the total allowed for the election cycle, but I think that was 14 people donating $2600 twice – again, it’s hard to tell when the reports are scrambled.  As might be expected, Dr. Arkoosh has a significant number of donations from physicians and others in the medical field.  There was also a little Hollywood, including a directory of celebrity services, a sr vp at Showtime, a filmmaker, and a project developer at Google.  A piano teacher and a private investigator were also donors.  Notable individuals are Dr. Manan Trivedi, a former congressional candidate in the 6th congressional district, the director at Women’s Way, and Debra Brady.   The only PAC listed is the Women’s Campaign Fund.

The only disbursement listed is $3500 to a fundraising consultant.


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