Since
last
fall's review of the spending habits of Congressional
campaigns, the state's candidates
have continued to find thrifty, questionable and downright foolish
ways to spend their money between October and March, several months
before voters start paying attention to them.
Democrats
in ostensibly competitive districts (Courtney, Himes, and Murphy) have
spent much less of a percentage of their income on average than
their Republican counterparts.
Chris Murphy's campaign, a
disciplined machine, has raised and saved the most and, not
coincidentally, has the lowest and most consistent burn rate.
John
Larson is the only candidate spending more than he is
raising. He
was actually left with less cash on hand at the end of March
than
when he started this electoral
cycle.
Sean Sullivan is the worst GOP candidate of the
year. (Tony Nania would compete for the title if he were for
real.)
Jim
Himes nearly matched Chris Shays in cash on hand, in large
part
because of Shays' pattern of big spending and Himes' past thriftiness.
But Himes raised less and spent more than Shays early this
year, diminishing
his progress.
CD
Candidate
Cash on hand
Jan 1 07
Raised
Jan 07 -
Mar 08
Spent
Jan 07 -
Mar 08
Cash on hand
Mar 31, 08
Burn
rate
Jan 07-
Sep 07
Burn
rate
Oct 07-
Mar 08
Total
burn rate
1
Larson
236,969
652,432
682,850
179,552
87%
155%
109%
2
Courtney
47,599
1,465,808
318,722
1,194,685
20%
25%
22%
2
Sullivan
-
230,450
101,462
128,988
23%
72%
44%
3
DeLauro
16,124
624,773
473,024
167,873
83%
66%
76%
4
Shays
61,544
1,608,255
532,072
1,137,726
37%
29%
33%
4
Himes
-
1,379,992
274,781
1,105,212
11%
27%
20%
5
Murphy
50,703
1,791,612
297,675
1,544,639
16%
18%
17%
5
Cappiello
-
654,655
232,039
420,316
24%
43%
35%
5
Nania
-
31,989
21,943
10,046
-
77%
77%
Burn rate = (total spent + debt)/ total raised.
More on the spending
habits of each candidate, and an update on April spending below.
And here is a look at just the first quarter of 2008:
CD
Candidate
Raised
Jan 08 -
Mar 08
Spent
Jan 08 -
Mar 08
Burn
rate
Jan 08-
Mar 08
1
Larson
69,088
100,900
146%
2
Courtney
272,699
78,209
29%
2
Sullivan
43,142
41,348
96%
3
DeLauro
147,680
119,248
81%
4
Shays
454,211
113,898
25%
4
Himes
428,772
123,808
29%
5
Murphy
400,464
65,960
16%
5
Cappiello
254,694
70,301
28%
5
Nania
31,989
21,943
77%
April 2008 "pre-convention" finance reports have recently
been released. However, since these reports only summarize
three
weeks of fundraising and spending in April, they are not incorporated
into most of this analysis. They are, however, summarized at
this
end of this diary.
1st CD
John
Larson is the only candidate who is actually spending more than he is
taking in. With no serious opponent, he has burned more cash
than
any other candidate in the state. Indeed, he has spent more
dollars than Courtney and Murphy combined.
As
was true
last year, the biggest portion of his cash has gone to subsidize the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He has also sent
funds to other candidates and a few charities. In the last
six
months, he has directed about $191,000, or 60% of his expenses, to
these other organizations. Of this amount, $150,000
was sent
to
the DCCC (his total DCCC contribution in this cycle is $350,000).
Larson
and his donors continue to eat a heck of a lot more food than any other
campaign in the state. In the last six months, he spent about
$6,998
on "political meals" (the only candidate to even use such an expense
category) and $22,502 on catering. Indeed, in the last six
months, he has spent nearly as much on food ($29,500, or $161 per day)
as he did in the first nine
months of 2007 ($35,025).
2nd CD
Joe
Courtney's expenses are unremarkable and relatively modest.
He
did shell out $17,200 to the DC-based polling firm Bennett Petts
& Blumenthal.
Sean
Sullivan is the state's most incompetent candidate, having raised less
than any semi-serious candiate and shed 96% of his income in the first
quarter of this year. Most of his expenses (55%) in the last
six
months have gone to consultant fees, including:
$21,230 to "polling" consultants
$15,436 to fundraising consultants (not including supplies
and postage billed by these consultants)
$2,855 to a media consultant
Particularly
baffling and moronic is the extravagant use of polling
consultants, who have consumed $38,130 over the brief life of his
campaign, or 30% of his expenses. Sullivan's poor fundraising
is
causing national prognosticators to downrate
his chances further.
3rd CD
Rosa
DeLauro is still spending like there's no tomorrow, with a six-month
burn rate of 66%. She sent $42,000 in the last two quarters
to
other campaign committees
(a quarter of her expenses), including $25,000 to the DCCC.
Even
so, this means that with no announced electoral opponent, she
spent more than $127,000 on other expenses, which is even more than
Chris Murphy's total campaign costs. Among other items,
DeLauro
shed a bunch on fundraising consultants and catering. She has
maintained her mysterious flower fixation, subsidizing the florist
industry by $2,453 over six months.
Incidentally, on Colin
McEnroe's radio show,
GOP chair Chris Healy recently said the Republicans have a
"super-secret candidate" they plan to announce in the 3rd CD.
Really, that's what he said. Also, perennial
candidate Ralph Ferrucci recently announced plans to run
as an Independent Party candidate, rather than a Green, so
that he doesn't have to be careful about what he says.
Really, that's what he said.
4th CD
Chris
Shays has decreased his burn rate over the last few months, not because
he has decreased his spending, but because he has raised more money.
Fundraising consultants are the leading beneficiaries of his
largesse, sucking up $50,350 of his funds in the last half year.
Shays
has discovered a new hobby lately -- books. He paid
over
$6,500 to Amazon for books, which were described as "event
expenses." I assume that he's giving away books to his
donors. Any guesses on what his
favorites are? (I think he could get much
more imaginative with his donor gifts.)
Perhaps Shays has been feeling a little lonely as the sole House
Republican in
New England. He gave
$1,000
late last year to Jeb Bradley, who
is trying to retake the New Hampshire seat he lost in a 2006 upset to
Carol Shea-Porter. He contributed to the
unsuccessful
Massachusetts special election campaign of Jim Oganowski, who tried to
take the seat
vacated by Marty Meehan, and sent $1,000 to David Cappiello.
On
his donor list elsewhere in the nation were John Gard and Bob
Latta, who sport strongly anti-choice records.
For
most quarters last year, Himes raised more funds and spent much less
than
Shays, closing the gap in their cash on hand. His
burn rate
remains lower than Shays' overall. But in the first quarter
of
this year, for the first time, Himes both raised less and spent more
than Shays.
Some
of this increase in spending is accounted for by
increased staffing, rent, and other expenses that he had not
incurred
in his start-up
phase. He has, however, substantially increased his
use of consultants, including $28,218 to the Feldman
Group, a
DC-based polling firm; $9,000 to Stamford-based Carlisle Hill LLC for
"campaign management consulting services;" $5,000 to Paul Hortenstine,
legislative assistant to Senator Bernie Sanders, for "research
consulting services"; and $5,000 to Blue State
Digital for Web site design. Unlike
most campaigns, Himes remained blissfully free of fundraising
consultants during this period, which could help explain
his success in raising
funds.
5th CD
Chris
Murphy has become the most efficient candidate in the state, with the
lowest burn rate. While
the spending of most candidates can swing widely from quarter to
quarter, Murphy's disciplined campaign engine keeps humming at similar
dollar spending levels - about $61K to $67K over the last three
quarters. Even at the end of June in the 2006 cycle, he had
spent
only 15% of his funds; he has thus far spent 17% in this cycle.
He is spending at half the burn rate of Cappiello, whom I
suspect
has little name recognition to show for his money.
David Cappiello had a jump in spending, including:
$35,367 in unspecified "administrative services and
expenses" to DC- and Massachusetts-based consultants,
$250 for a bartender and $420 for wine to drown his
troubles.
Tony
Nania, who is attempting to primary Cappiello for the privilege of
losing to Murphy, didn't raise much (about $32,000),
but didn't mind spending 77%
of it immediately. He's not one for transparency, listing
$7,473 in Visa
bills that are described only as "various campaign expenses."
That means one-third of his expenses are unexplained. I
wonder if
the FEC will want a word with him on that. Nania also:
loaned himself $2,800,
sent $8,250 to Westbury Strategies of Oxford CT for
campaign management, and
spent $970 for a Web site that... doesn't seem to exist.
April Update
The
April 2008 pre-convention finance reports have been released.
The
three weeks of time on which they report is too brief a period to
fairly evaluate burn rates, so their data were not incorporated into
the analysis above.
CD
Candidate
Raised
Apr 1 08 -
Apr 20 08
Spent
Apr 1 08 -
Apr 20 08
Cash on hand
Apr 20 08
1
Larson
71,956
19,306
232,201
2
Courtney
68,555
32,821
1,232,642
2
Sullivan
3,070
19,065
112,993
3
DeLauro
29,525
18,590
178,808
4
Shays
125,545
16,016
1,247,256
4
Himes
19,737
99,616
1,025,333
5
Murphy
21,415
35,350
1,530,704
5
Cappiello
10,500
31,724
399,092
5
Nania
10,250
14,341
5,955
While there is certainly time in this quarter for increased
fundraising and the April report is a mid-course snapshot, it is clear
that the Himes campaign is accelerating, rather than
scaling back their spending. Himes spent nearly three times
as
much as the nearest candidate in April. In just the first
three
weeks of this quarter, he
has spent 80% of what he expended in the entire first quarter of 2008.
The vast majority ($74,686) went to consultants, including
$33,252 to a polling firm, $23,170 to a media and
advertising firm,
and $6,000 for his first fundraising consultant.
In other news:
Sean
Sullivan, risking FEC penalties, filed his pre-convention
report
late, and he still loves consultants, no matter how much they burn him.
Tony
Nania is left with less than $6,000 to his name as the May 10
GOP nominating convention approaches.
The income
from David Cappiello's Bush/Kissinger fundraiser was not
reflected
in the pre-convention report. Despite the de facto taxpayer
subsidy for the event, the expenses charged for the fundraiser are
likely to be substantial.
[Methodological
notes: For raised and spent figures, used "Total Receipts" and "Total
Disbursements" line items from Federal Election Commission quarterly
reports.
The only candidates with March 2008 debts were Chris Murphy
($2,000) and Tony Nania ($2,800). In April, Nania repaid his
debt,
which was his own loan to his campaign.]
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