Campaign financing....
I've only taken a quick scan at the some of the hundreds of pieces of papers filed with the Federal Elections Commission on Wednesday...and here's a couple of interesting items that immediately popped out at me:
1. U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, ended the year with a sizeable debt - owing $42,330.95.
That isn't surprising since successful challengers in congressional races typically find themselves having to expend more money after an election to set up transition teams that were not part of the campaign budget. Courtney, who has already filed for re-election in 2008, is, however, not off to a bad start - reporting $47,598 cash on hand as of Dec. 31.
2. Former Congressman Rob Simmons had to file an amended finance report for that period going into the election, correcting the amount of cash he actually had on hand at that time. Bottom line, according to his year end filing, Simmons has $9,426.05 cash on hand as of Dec. 31.
What's interesting is that among his campaign expenditures in December are rent payments on his campaign office - which might lead one to speculate that he hasn't ruled out the possible 2008 challenge. It is also noteworthy to point out that his campaign filed an "End of Year" report and not a "Termination" report.
3. U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, who was not up for re-election in 2006, has reported raising $3.2 million in his "2010 Senate Re-election campaign" in the final three months of last year - bringing his total cash on hand figure as of Dec. 31 to $4.9 million.
Dodd, of course, declared his candidacy for president on January 11 - and his presidential campaign will be filing it's first finance report in April. Under FEC rules, Dodd can transfer 95 percent of the money from his Senate campaign to his presidential campaign.
4. Both of the two national congressional political campaigns (the Republican National Congressional Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) were also very active in Connecticut's 2nd District race last year. According to FEC filings, the RNCC spent $2.7 million in opposing Courtney's bid, while the D-Triple-C spent $1.8 million to oppose Simmons' re-election.
5. And finally, in the 2006 Senate campaign that dominated the news much of the year, U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and his Democratic rival Ned Lamont spent a ton of money - more than $34 million combined.
The National Political Journal did some figuring, and has determined that Lamont finished third in the nation in terms of self-financing campaigns, averaging $45 per vote.
I can't mention this enough...both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate pay a base salary of $165,500 a year.
The campaign finance reports are available for viewing on the FEC Web page. You can find them at www.fec.gov.
1. U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, ended the year with a sizeable debt - owing $42,330.95.
That isn't surprising since successful challengers in congressional races typically find themselves having to expend more money after an election to set up transition teams that were not part of the campaign budget. Courtney, who has already filed for re-election in 2008, is, however, not off to a bad start - reporting $47,598 cash on hand as of Dec. 31.
2. Former Congressman Rob Simmons had to file an amended finance report for that period going into the election, correcting the amount of cash he actually had on hand at that time. Bottom line, according to his year end filing, Simmons has $9,426.05 cash on hand as of Dec. 31.
What's interesting is that among his campaign expenditures in December are rent payments on his campaign office - which might lead one to speculate that he hasn't ruled out the possible 2008 challenge. It is also noteworthy to point out that his campaign filed an "End of Year" report and not a "Termination" report.
3. U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, who was not up for re-election in 2006, has reported raising $3.2 million in his "2010 Senate Re-election campaign" in the final three months of last year - bringing his total cash on hand figure as of Dec. 31 to $4.9 million.
Dodd, of course, declared his candidacy for president on January 11 - and his presidential campaign will be filing it's first finance report in April. Under FEC rules, Dodd can transfer 95 percent of the money from his Senate campaign to his presidential campaign.
4. Both of the two national congressional political campaigns (the Republican National Congressional Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) were also very active in Connecticut's 2nd District race last year. According to FEC filings, the RNCC spent $2.7 million in opposing Courtney's bid, while the D-Triple-C spent $1.8 million to oppose Simmons' re-election.
5. And finally, in the 2006 Senate campaign that dominated the news much of the year, U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and his Democratic rival Ned Lamont spent a ton of money - more than $34 million combined.
The National Political Journal did some figuring, and has determined that Lamont finished third in the nation in terms of self-financing campaigns, averaging $45 per vote.
I can't mention this enough...both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate pay a base salary of $165,500 a year.
The campaign finance reports are available for viewing on the FEC Web page. You can find them at www.fec.gov.
posted by Ray Hackett at 9:52 AM
3 Comments:
Chris Murphy had $45,202 on hand at the end of the year.
However, he has $52,250 in debt.
Mostly salaries and bonuses.
All that information is readily available. In fact, let me give you a couple of web pages where you can see for yourself who gave and where it went.
The actual campaign finance reports are available at the FEC Web page at www.fec.gov.
For a more detailed breakdown of in-state, out-of-state contributions, PACs vs. individual contributions, there is excellent site:
www.opensecrets.org
Ray Hacketts does not ask tough questions of his friends.
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