1st Quarter FEC Report Roundup

1st Quarter FEC Reports

Okay, here we go again. First off, 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.

This quarter covers January – March, 2009.

Keep your eye on individual donations vs. PAC’s

Some candidates, such as Allyson Schwartz and Patrick Murphy, leave their reports in alphabetical order. That makes it easy to see who donated what when. Some arrange their reports chronologically so you can see the pattern of donations. Others, most of the other candidates listed here, scramble their reports so the names are not in alphabetical order or the donations on chronological order and that makes it darn difficult to keep track of them. Transparency, folks, a little more transparency please. Yes, this thwarts your opponent but it thwarts your constituents too.

If there are two numbers one is for the quarter, the other for the election cycle to date.


6th Congressional District

Jim Gerlach, Republican incumbent (elected 2002)

Column A This Period Column B Election Cycle-To-Date
I. RECEIPTS
11. Contributions (other than loans) From:
(a) Individuals
(i) Itemized 56,900.00
(ii) Unitemized 1,706.00
(iii) Total Contributions From Individuals 58,606.00 / 61,397.00
(c) Other Political Committees (such as PACS) 87,750.00 / 88,750.00
(e) Total Contributions 146,356.00 / 150,147.00
14. Refunds, Rebates, etc 2,441.92 / 3,274.92
15. Other Receipts 5,249.95 / 6,016.20
16. Total Receipts 154,047.87 / 160,056.36
II. DISBURSEMENTS
17. Operating Expenditures 99,370.04 / 249,324.56
21. Other Disbursements 1,450.00 / 3,950.00
22. Total Disbursements 100,820.04 / 253,274.56
III. CASH SUMMARY
23. Cash On Hand At Beginning Of Reporting Period 71,061.55
24. Total Receipts This Period 154,047.87 / 160,056.36
25. Subtotal 225,109.42
26. Total Disbursements This Period 100,820.04 / 253,274.56
27. Cash On Hand At Close Of The Reporting Period 124,289.38

Arranged chronologically. Four new maxed out contributors. There are four donations from people who work at DC based pr firm Cavarocchi, Ruscio, Dennis. Contributions from three employees of Blank Rome plus $1K from the Blank Rome PAC. Among the PACs are those from flight attendants, aircraft owners, and pilots. Financial and health industries also represented. Interestingly, the congressional campaign pays his gubernatorial campaign for office space and Two paid employees, reimbursed for health insurance; media ($43K) and fundraising consultants ($15K)


7th Congressional District

Joe Sestak, Incumbent Democrat (elected 2006)

RECEIPTS
11. Contributions (other than loans) From:
(a) Individuals/Persons Other than Political Committees
(i) Itemized 338,310.00
(ii) Unitemized 25,421.35
(iii) Total Contributions From Individuals 363,731.35 / 371,051.02
(b) Political Party Commitees 94.82 / 94.82
(c) Other Political Committees (such as PACS) 176,000.00 / 176,000.00
(e) Total Contributions (11(a)(iii) + (b) + (c)) 539,826.17 / 547,145.84
15. Other Receipts 10,598.08 / 19,995.89
16. Total Receipts 550,424.25 / 567,319.96
Disbursements
17. Operating Expenditures 133,683.12 / 288,270.89
Total Contribution Refunds 5,180.00 / 11,241.71
21. Other Disbursements 5,000.00 / 5,000.00
22. Total Disbursements 143,863.12 / 304,512.60
III. CASH SUMMARY
23. Cash On Hand At Beginning Of Reporting Period 2,937,140.09
24. Total Receipts This Period (line 16) 550,424.25 / 567,319.96
25. Subtotal 3,487,564.34
26. Total Disbursements This Period 143,863.12 / 304,512.60
27. Cash On Hand 3,343,701.22

25 newly maxed out contributors. Local economist and one-time McCain advisor Mark Zandi donated $4800, as did someone else with the same last name. Zandi spoke at Sestak’s business summit last month. Vanguard’s John Bogle is also a donor. Among individual donors there seemed to be quite a few people in various aspects of the financial industry. One of the more unusual names is someone at the San Francisco Zoo. Among disbursements there is a $5K donation to Children’s National Medical Center in Maryland. $10K to The Campaign Group for general political consulting. Six employees, two named Sestak; Richard Sestak is well paid for a campaign worker. Local website company. As always Sestak’s report is scrambled making it very difficult to work with.


8th Congressional District

Patrick Murphy, Incumbent Democrat (elected 2006)

I. RECEIPTS
11. Contributions (other than loans) From:
(a) Individuals/Persons Other than Political Committees
(i) Itemized 220,999.80
(ii) Unitemized 5,733.62
(iii) Total Of Contributions From Individuals 226,733.42
(c) PACS 137,550.00
(e) Total Contributions 364,283.42
14. (Refunds, Rebates, etc) 2,612.17
15. Other Receipts 133.67
16. Total Receipts 367,029.26

The end of year campaign finance report for this campaign has been amended and, going by a letter from the FEC on file with the pdfs of printed reports, will have to be amended again. The first quarter report will also need to be amended. Instead of holding the blog post until the reports are amended I’m going ahead with partial data. The receipts are unlikely to change so I’ve included them, and my notes below. You can see the reports online at www.fec.gov if you would like to review them in their current state. Hopefully all will be fixed by the end of the second quarter.

11 newly maxed out contributors. A good percentage of the individual contributors are attorneys. Other frequent businesses, occupations are consultants and the like. Actress Felicity Huffman is among the contributors. In the PAC contributions we find $10K from the Blue Dog PAC. 11 people on the payroll, though many are for short periods of time. $1200 to a business in New Orleans for event expenses. Nearly $25K to a DC hotel for event expenses [Update: someone emailed to say this was probably an inaugural reception; indeed, the payment is dated 1/20]. $8500 to the Spectrum for event expenses. $10K to Stones Phones for phone calls. $19K to Sutters Mill for fundraising consultant. There are a lot of travel expenses. There is a $39K debt to Squier Knapp Dunn for media purchase; nearly $39K in debt to Stones Phones.

13th Congressional District

Allyson Schwartz, Incumbent District (elected 2004)

I. RECEIPTS
11. Contributions (other than loans) From:
(a) Individuals/Persons Other than Political Committees
(i) Itemized 239,994.69
(ii) Unitemized 5,205.00
(iii) Total Of Contributions From Individuals 245,199.69 / 259,558.19
(b) Political Party Committees 58.88 / 58.88
(c) Other Political Committees (such as PACS) 125,500.00 / 129,500.00
(e) Total Contributions 370,758.57 / 389,117.07
15. Other Receipts 8,449.83 / 14,501.72
16. Total Receipts 379,208.40 / 403,618.79
II. DISBURSEMENTS
17. Operating Expenditures 93,773.06 / 156,052.19
20. Refunds of Contributions To:
(a) Individuals/Persons 0.00 / 1,000.00
(d) Total Contribution Refunds 0.00 / 1,000.00
21. Other Disbursements 119,380.00 / 119,480.00
22. Total Disbursements 213,153.06 / 276,532.19
III. CASH SUMMARY
23. Cash On Hand At Beginning Of Reporting Period 1,980,215.91
24. Total Receipts This Period 379,208.40 / 403,618.79
25. Subtotal 2,359,424.31
26. Total Disbursements This Period 213,153.06 / 276,532.19
27. Cash On Hand At Close Of The Reporting Period 2,146,271.25

There are only TWO newly maxed out contributors. A number came in at $4600 which means they can only contribute $200 more, but at this point in the game, to have only two newly maxed out contributors is amazing, especially considering she only paid a little over $7K to a fundraising firm/consultant. This means she can go back to the well at least one more time. There is a real occupational diversity among contributors. Her celebrity contributor is the CEO of the Eagles. There is a lot of health care in the PACs. 2 paid staff. $100K to DCCC, $17K to FOP Survivors Fund. The campaign is renting a storage unit.