Gone are the days of a grassroots campaign where you bought the voter file from the state or city clerk’s office, your friends come up with your logo, designed your lit, stuffed envelopes, did data entry, knocked on doors and dropped lit, baked some cookies and a Wisconsin casserole (hope you caught the Wis/Minn accent der) . . . these mayoral candidates are paying for staff, consultants, videos, photography, event space and food and credit card and banking fees and more . . .
I don’t know if this is a fluke, or a trend, but either way, I think it’s bad for the state of local politics. It seriously limits who will run for office when big money gets involved.
The big spender was Satya Rhodes-Conway with $38,804 but she was followed closely by Mo Cheeks at $37,775, Raj Shukla came in at $24,006 and Mayor Paul Soglin brought up rear for the serious candidates at $9,343.
By comparison, at this time 4 years ago, the candidates had only spent the following:
Paul Soglin – $20,988
Bridget Maniaci – $5,847
Scott Resnick – $3,437
And 4 years ago the candidates had only raised
Paul – $60,585
Scott – $17,494
Bridget – $14,503
As a reminder, this year the candidates have raised
Mo – $113,118
Raj – $90,481
Paul – $76,693
Satya – $52,310
So, what did they collectively spend their $108,000 on?
Consultants
Satya $29,406
Mo $18,500
Raj $5,619
Paul $0
$53,525
Photography and Videos
Mo $7447
Paul $3000
Satya $800
Raj $0
$11,247
NPG VAN
Mo $6,145
Satya $3893
Raj $932
Paul $0
$10,970
Printing and Literature
Raj $6,043
Satya $1,176
Mo $401
Paul $0
$7,620
Food and Beverages
Paul $2,693
Mo $1,713
Satya $37.40
Raj $0
$4,442.40
Act Blue and other credit card fees
Raj $1,966 – Act Blue
Satya $387 – Act Blue
Mo $43 – Act Blue
Paul $493 on credit card and bank fees, but not with Act Blue
$2,889
Mysteries
Raj spent $4,476.94 in “in kind offset” – but didn’t indicate what exactly he was spending it on.
Who are these consultants?
Mo spent his money on
$50 +1 Strategies LLC – Oakland CA = $10,500
Brita Olsen Consulting – Madison WI (campaign manager) = $8,000
Satya spend her money on
Run the World Digital – Alexandria VA = $13,000
The Campaign Workshop – Washington DC = $8,956
Madison Cassell – Arlington TX = $3,687
Clara Hoff – Chalotsville VA = $2,220
Kyle Buda – Bay City MI = $1451
Raj spent his money on
New Blue – Washington DC – $2000
Amanda Brink – Madison, WI – $2000
Kenneth Atkins – Madison WI – $1619
Look for yourself!
Here’s their reports
Mo – starts on page 166
Satya – starts on page 15 but they are not numbered.
Raj – starts on page 8 but they are not numbered
Paul – starts on page 51
