Campaign Finance Reports No, I didn’t fall off the planet. My first report, as Treasurer of the Mesa County Democratic Central Committee, is due at the Secretary of State’s office by midnight tomorrow. Because I don’t look good in orange, I spent most of last week dotting the “i”s and crossing the “t”s to make sure the report accurately reflects what we took in and what we paid out. Karl Castleton, Co-Chairman of the Mesa DEMS reviewed my work yesterday, and we pushed to button to file the report. It is now public information. On November 2, I won’t be able to help myself—I’ll search out the Mesa County Republican’s report and probably tell you all about it here. Climate Change There was an interesting development while I was bogged down with numbers in the world of climate deniers. One of the 2% of scientists who were paid by industry to prove that humans play no role in climate change did a study to prove his point. When he applied scientific principles to the data, he discovered that climate change is real. I’m sure the Koch Brothers wish this scientist’s research had not been funded. The Continuing War on Women A week ago Rick Perry was the darling of the GOP, but the newest rising star is Herman Cain. It seems he truly believes that no publicity is bad publicity, and he may be right. He sure got everyone talking about him when he released a political ad with a man puffing on a cigarette, followed by his slow grin. Front runner status always brings more scrutiny, and Cain is now the target of much scrutiny. The latest charge is one of sexual harassment. Speaking strictly as a woman who spent most of her life in the male dominated world of finance, I wouldn’t be surprised if Cain does treat women as sexual objects. It seems to be a common problem with the sociopaths that make it to the top in the corporate world. Unions The highlight of my week was a Saturday night party at the IBEW hall in Clifton. Best line of the evening came from the IBEW business manager, who was in costume as a pirate. He said that it was an appropriate costume for contract negotiations. The Colorado head of the AFL-CIO was present to remind people to vote in favor of 3B and 103. Those union guys really know how to throw a party. Good food, good drink, good friends, and good music. Homework Mesa County Democratic Central Committee Campaign Finance Report Climate Denier Denies No More Conservative Women to Cain: You've Got Some "Splainin" to do Sociopaths in the Board Room
At the time that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Citizens United case, many people expressed worry that foreign companies would begin to influence our elections. Several liberal organizations are now worried that foreign companies are doing just that through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Here are the facts: It has been illegal since 1907 for foreign nationals to contribute to U.S. election campaigns. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has members who are foreign companies. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is spending $75-million to get Republicans elected. The money is coming from the operating account of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where money from U.S. companies mingles with money from foreign companies, and a foreign dollar can’t be segregated from a U.S. dollar. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbied to defeat legislation (the DISCLOSE Act) that would have required donors be disclosed in Election ads.
The argument goes that if the U.S. Chamber of Commerce did not have the foreign money it would not have the money to both run its operations and to spend $75-million on U.S. elections. Countries with companies belonging to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce include: China, India, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and Russia.
A Think Progress report says that over 8,000 ads have been aired to defeat Democratic Senate candidates across the U.S. Some of the ads attack Democrats for speaking out against out-sourcing U.S. jobs to foreign countries. The McCain/Palin Asia Campaign Director has been on TV saying a Democratic congress is bad for business. Yep, it is bad for foreign businesses that cost Americans jobs and want to support candidates who will continue to allow foreigners to influence our government.
Sadly, this isn’t what the Tea Party is talking about when they say “Take back our country.” But it should be.
Homework:
Report on Activities of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
MoveOn Wants Investigation of Chamber of Commerce
Another Report---Seems to be based on the Report in the First Link
U.S. Chamber of Commerce Denies Any Wrong Doing
Texas Billionaires Influencing Bennet/Buck RaceGrand Junction Chamber Endorses Republican Candidates
We are now in a cycle where campaign finance reports come out every two weeks. We are holding our own, but the lopsided demographics finally appeared in the most recent reports. King outraised us by a significant amount. He raised $8,730 to our $2,895. That’s the bad news. At the end of the reporting period he had $21,315.53 on hand, and we had $24,519.45 on hand, $3,203.92 more cash on hand. That’s the good news. Yesterday he posted on his Facebook page that we planned to spend $25,000 on ads, so please send money. He got the $25,000 figure from reading our Facebook page. We wrote that we were going to spend every penny we have on-hand to win this race. We are. And we won’t be spending it on things like tires, or mileage, or dry cleaning, or nights out partying with our buddies. We will be spending it to get out our message. We are being very frugal and only spending money on the things we absolutely have to spend it on. If we can get something done by a volunteer, we are getting it done by a volunteer. But we sure could use some more cash. We know that there are more Republicans in Mesa County. We know that King will have an easier time of raising money as the race heats up. King has a few “town hall” meetings planned which will put him in front of his base. He’ll ask for money while he is at it. We can disrupt that money stream by showing up at those meetings and asking him for specific answers to policy questions, and reminding people of his ethical challenges. Unfortunately, it appears that the King Camp has scheduled their “town hall” meetings for days where I am already scheduled for something else, so it is not likely that I can personally ask any questions. I understand that he had a robo-call where he said that he will be bringing “virtue” back to Denver. Somehow I don’t think “virtue” is a value that King holds near and dear. Someone should ask him what he means. I need your help from now until Election Day. Here is what you can do: · Put a Konola sign up in your yard. (There are some at DEM headquarters.) · Talk to your friends and neighbors about the differences between the two candidates. Remind them that King has not accomplished much in the four years he’s been in Denver, and that his skill set is no match for the problems facing Colorado. · Attend King “town hall” meetings and ask him policy questions. · Help me knock on doors. · Send money. Thank you for all that you have already done. I appreciate the support that has been demonstrated by all the volunteers, and the donations—large and small—that have put us in a position where we actually have more cash on hand right now than our opponent. Homework (Some scary stuff about what may be in the works): List of 527 Groups and Their MoneyDEM 527 Group-ThinkGlenwood Newspaper Reports on 527 Activity in Garfield County527s Coordinate Efforts
Please tune in later. Campaign Finance Reports are due by midnight, and as soon as my opponent files his, we'll let you know how we both did over the past two weeks.
There was an interesting story in today’s sentinel about a group trying to oust Colorado justices. The group is right leaning, and wants to Clear the Bench—in fact that is the group’s name. I’m somewhat sympathetic to the organizers when they complain about being uncertain about campaign finance rules. The rules are relatively new and require seeking advice from the Secretary of State’s office about some issues. Two examples that come to mind are:1. When does the campaign declare a volunteer’s time as an in-kind donation?2. How does one determine the fair market value of in-kind donations, such as food prepared by a hostess for a meet and greet?In the case reported by Charles Ashby, organizers of a group dedicated to ousting judges filed with the Secretary of State as an issues committee. The judge ruled that they are a candidate committee because judges are candidates in the context of the ballot question about retaining them. This is an important distinction because the maximum donation allowed differs depending on the type of committee that is organized.Which all brings me back to why I think it is a great idea to have mail in ballots—especially in this internet age. I recommend sitting down in front of your computer with your ballot and spending a lot of time with Google searches. You can see who is funding which issues campaign and which candidate by going to the Secretary of State’s website. Then you can ask yourself if the funders have an agenda that matches your own. You can Google judges names and see what rulings they have issued on what cases, and see if they make sense. You can Google candidates names and see what they’ve accomplished. Once you are informed about the candidates and issues, you can fill out your ballot and mail it back in, knowing that you are voting in a way that furthers your own best interests.Homework:Story about Campaign Finance RulingStarting Place to Look for Campaign & Issue Committee DonationsStarting Point for Getting Mail-in Ballots
Yesterday was another deadline for campaign finance reports. We are now in a period where there are deadlines every two weeks.
After the last report, where King raised a lot more money than we did, I was afraid of what I might see when I opened his report. But I didn’t need to be. THANKS EVERYONE, WE DID IT AGAIN!
King raised $3,643 and has $16,286 on hand. Of 17 total donors, three were PACS. This time there were no lobbyists. The Mesa County Republican Party gave him $250. He’s cleaned up his spending habits, all of his expenses ($1,251.14) were campaign related, and he only charged mileage ($505.50) to the campaign, instead of both mileage and other automobile expenses. Guess we’re getting to him.
But here’s the good news! We raised $4,230 (16% more than King) and have $21,687 on hand (33% more than King.) We had 21 donors, many of which were repeat donors, including the Mesa County Democratic Party. Our party donated $2,000 previously, and donated another $2,000 this reporting period. We also received a large donation from the Colorado Professional Fire Fighters. And my mother came through with a $50 donation to offset my brother’s donation. Two of my former co-workers at Community Reinvestment fund sent donations—including the Chief Executive Officer.
I am especially grateful to several people who dug deep to come up with a little donation, even though they are not rich, and it took something else out of their budget for the month. It makes me want to work even harder for YOU.
We are starting to see campaign mobile sightings posted at our Facebook page! I drive around a lot, but we are not expensing mileage to our campaign fund—I am paying for that out of my own pocket. We spent very little this reporting period, mostly on bank fees. We are about to start spending all the money that we’ve been saving up to this date. We will spend it on a media campaign to attract votes.
On another topic, we were interviewed by the Sentinel’s editorial board yesterday. King will be in the hot seat today. The result of these interviews will be an endorsement from the newspaper. Keep your fingers crossed. The Chamber of Commerce has endorsed King, but that doesn’t mean much. They haven’t endorsed a Democrat in over 30 years—they can’t see past the “R.”
Something has been bothering me about the Club 20 debate.I asked my opponent if he thought it was right to stick his hands into the pockets of his donors to pay for his personal dry cleaning and to put tires on his car.I’ll admit that he surprised me by pulling out a paystub from his legislative job. He’d like his donors to think that he is sacrificing the financial health of his family because he is so passionate about serving his constituents. He talked about putting tires on his car three times and how many miles he had on the car, and how he was supporting three kids, and poor, poor, pitiful me.Here’s my problem with that attempt to turn himself into the victim.He has a part-time job with the Colorado State legislature that pays him $30,000 a year plus a per diem of $150/day for living expenses.He claims to be the only active cop in the legislature—presumably he gets paid for being a cop.He has a consulting contract with Mesa State College that is the result of legislation that he sponsored.He claims to run a small business with his wife.If King can’t support himself with all of these revenue streams, why doesn’t he get a full time job?Remember that he was chastised for the way he handled his expense accounts for his $150/day per diem, after an ethics investigation? He’d like you to think it was only a witch hunt by someone trying to destroy his legislative career, but no other legislator was subject to the same ethics investigation, and he didn’t even have an opponent at that point. Colorado campaign finance rules don’t specifically say that IRS rules should be followed when accounting for campaign finances. But under IRS rules, either you get reimbursed a flat rate for mileage, or you deduct your actual business expenses, including gas, tires, oil changes, etc.If you look at King’s campaign finance reports over the period of this campaign, He has deducted both mileage and actual expenses. (Don’t take my word for it, the information is public and filed at the secretary of state’s website.)· On the May 3 report, he charged $698.95 for tires and $143.49 for gasoline.· On the June 1 report, all of his expenses were campaign related with a printing company.· On the July 6 report, all of his expenses were campaign related.· On the August 2 report, all of his expenses were campaign related.· On the September 7 report, he reported mileage reimbursement of $714.32 plus $56.44 for service on “campaign vehicle.”He couldn’t claim both mileage and actual expenses on an IRS filing. It doesn’t seem ethical to me that he could do so on campaign finance reports. He must be sticking his hands into the pockets of his donors, because he needs the money. I just don’t trust anybody that desperate for money.Homework:IRS Mileage RulesSecretary of State filings by Steve King
Today’s Grand Junction Daily Sentinel printed a story about local campaign finances. The story got something wrong. The story reported that I loaned money to my campaign. I did not loan any money to my campaign. If I had loaned money to my campaign, I would have reported it as a loan on my campaign finance report filed with the Secretary of State.What I did do was pay for some campaign expenses out of my own pocket and reported them as an “in-kind” donation. The Definition of “in-kind” donation is something that had benefit to the campaign, but which was donated, rather than paid for. I’ve donated things like paper and ink for printing, mileage to and from campaign related events, and a campaign cell phone. I have no expectation of ever being repaid for these donations. I will probably make more of them, just as I will personally contribute additional cash to my own campaign. I just do not believe that I can ask someone to donate to my campaign if I am not willing to do so myself.There is an interesting question that should be raised with my opponent. Some of my “in-kind” donations came from supporters who served refreshments at campaign related events. They provided to the campaign receipts for those refreshments, and we reported them as “in-kind” donations from the event hosts. This is what we are legally required to do. Either we report them as an “in-kind” donation, or we have to write a check to the host to cover those costs.Maybe King isn’t having any campaign events. That could explain why he has so few donations from individuals, and why he is not reporting any “in-kind” expenses. We’ve pointed out in previous blogs his tendency to spend money on himself (dry-cleaning, meals) and his car (new tires) and questioned his priorities. That man is no fiscal conservative, for sure. Where he spends money on himself, we are saving our cash so that we can reach voters with our message.HomeworkFundraising in Senate District 7 RaceCurry Sues Over Campaign Finance LawsSecretary of State Training Manuals Re: Campaign Finance RulesAll Campaign Finance Reports for Senate District 7
Campaign finance reports were due at the Secretary of State’s office by midnight tonight. Both King and I have filed our reports for the period ending July 28.
King is getting more serious about his finances. He hasn’t spent any money lately on dry-cleaning or his car. He spent $312.54 on bumper stickers and $715.07 on stamps, envelopes, and printing. My guess is that the stamps, envelopes, and printing are a mailing asking for donations. This reporting period he raised $400 from three individual contributors. He has $2,693.51 on hand as of the end of the reporting period.
Our team just keeps plugging away. For the third consecutive reporting period, we raised more money than our opponent. During this two-week reporting period, we raised $1,300, and spent $353.57, leaving $14,063.95 on hand.
Over all the reporting periods King has raised slightly more cash than we have--$18,308.94. But we are gaining on him. We’ve raised a total of $16,918.54. We’ve also had in-kind donations of $1.579.90—most of which was items that benefited the campaign, but which I personally paid for instead of charging the campaign. King is not reporting any in-kind donations. If you add the cash donations and the in-kind donations, we’ve raised $18,498.44, or $189.50 more than King.
King is hardly conservative when it comes to spending. He has spent 92.2% of what he collected, not counting the $3,023.17 loan he took out. We haven’t borrowed any money, and have 83.1% of what we collected still in the bank.
We need $25,000 in order to run an effective media campaign. We’d like to have that in the bank by the next campaign finance report, which is due September 7. Individuals can contribute up to $400 each. I’ll match, up to $3,000, every contribution made at ActBlue between now and September 1.
Game on! We are in it to win it!
It is that time again! Campaign Finance reports are due by midnight today. Both Steve King and our campaign have filed our reports. We out raised him again, and have more money on hand. But King seems to have finally awakened and realized that he has an opponent. I can’t poke fun at him anymore for only having four local supporters who aren’t lobbyists or PACs. He has 22, and one of them is my Republican brother.King took in $3,785 from 18 individual, local donors, one small donor committee, and two PACS. Konola4Colorado took in $5,210 from 11 individual donors and one small donor committee. The 11 individual donors included one from Minneapolis—a man who worked with me at Community Reinvestment Fund. Other former co-workers have also contributed to my campaign. Likewise, my mother, father, and sister have contributed to my campaign. My father passed away on July 1. When I explained to my mother that I felt I needed to march in the local 4th of July parades, I told her that Dad wanted me to run, so I needed to get back to work. She said, “No, he wanted you to WIN.”King spent $303.15 with one local printing company. He purchased donation envelopes. Konola4Colorado spent $23.56, all on bank charges, and had one in-kind donation from the candidate for a campaign cell phone. We may need to purchase our second batch of donation envelopes soon, the stock is running low.King has $3,631.12 on hand. Konola4Colorado has $13,117.52 on hand. Next report is due August 2.Homework:Total Money Raised and Spent in This Race
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