Palin Spends More De-Icing Planes Than For Candidates
ShareEx-AK Gov. Sarah Palin (R) spent more money to de-ice her private jets than she did donating money to candidates during the first 3 months of the year, according to new filings made with the FEC.
The filings show Palin's political wing, Sarah PAC, paid a FL-based airplane service company $14K to de-ice a private jet. The PAC spent more than $16K -- twice as much as it donated to individual candidates -- on hotels from New Orleans to New York City to Richland, WA.
And it's good to work on Palin's behalf. Consultants for the PAC made more than $233K through their contracts, the report shows. Ex-spokeswoman Meg Stapleton, who left the PAC last month, had a $10K per month contract. Randy Scheunemann, one of Palin's top advisors during the WH'08 campaign, also makes $10K a month; during the last 3 months, Jason Recher, another aide on the '08 campaign, made $50K.
The amount she pays her staff pales in comparison to the amount she gives to help GOP candidates win elections. Palin gave just $7,500 to candidates running for office this time. She handed $1K checks to Iraq war vet Vaughn Ward (R), who is running against Rep. Walt Minnick (D-ID); Iraq War vet Allen West (R), who faces a primary in his challenge to Rep. Ron Klein (D-FL); and ex-McLean Co. Commis./Iraq war vet Adam Kinzinger (R), the nominee against Rep. Debbie Halvorson.
Palin gave $2,500 to Ashland Co. DA Sean Duffy (R), running an uphill battle against Rep. Dave Obey (D-WI), and another $2K to ophthalmologist Rand Paul (R), the reports show. Meanwhile, she also gave $1K each to 2 PACs that support veterans running for Congress.
The $9,500 in checks represent just 2.3% of the money Palin brought in during the first quarter. Palin's PAC spent a total of $409,760 in the first quarter.
What's more, there is no evidence that Palin has kept her promise to donate money she earned from a Tea Party convention in Feb. Amid controversies surrounding the National Tea Party Convention, held in Nashville, Palin said she would donate her $100K speaking fee to campaigns, candidates and issues.
Palin did not contribute any money to her PAC, according to FEC filings. And in fact, it will be difficult for her to contribute the money this year. Palin, as an individual, would be able to give a maximum of $45,600 to different candidates -- maxing out to 19 contenders -- and another $69,900 to party committees, for a total of $115,500.
It has never made sense for Palin to contribute the money to political organizations. If she did that, she would still have to pay taxes on the reported $100K she earned from the speech; contributions to candidates and political parties are not tax deductible.
So far, while SarahPAC has given money to candidates, Palin herself has not contributed to any federal candidate this cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. A Palin spokesperson did not return an email seeking comment.
-- Stephanie Palla contributed to this report
Update: Palin's team has told other media outlets that the cost for de-icing is listed twice, so Palin only spent $7,300 on de-icing her private plane. Palin's team has not updated their FEC filing and the expense is not listed as a reimbursement, the usual reason something might appear on the report twice. Palin's team still has not responded to Hotline OnCall's request for comment.
To be fair she raises a heck of a lot of money with her appearances for candidate fundraisers and causes.
So the de-icing of planes and traveling to headline a fundraiser for a candidate is a heck of a boost for that specific candidate/cause that doesn't show up on paper.
A slow news day Reid? How much does Romney pay his army of consultants? Or Pawlenty? How much did Romney spend to win a meaningless straw poll at the SRLC? How about the $2+ million Gov. Palin has raised for conservative causes and candidates in the first three months of 2010 that didn't pass through her PAC?
http://www.conservatives4palin.com/2010/04/gov-palin-raises-2-million-for.html
DB
Excellent reporting! This is the kind of news serious Republican donors can use.
The important point in this post: "The $9,500 in checks represent just 2.3% of the money Palin brought in during the first quarter. Palin's PAC spent a total of $409,760 in the first quarter."
An expenditures/contributions ratio that low marks Sarah PAC as one of the least efficient PACs. The average by that measure is about 35%.
One blog is asking a lot of questions of Sarah Palin and having some fun. Check it out:
http://palinquestions.blogspot.com
How much does Romney spend? Pawlenty? McCain? Obama? Um, these are all legitimate authentic individuals actively serving in office.
Mrs. Palin is not.
They actually have job duties and a function.
Mrs. Palin does not.
All these other people represent a constituency.
Mrs. Palin does not.
These other people are accountable to someone, somewhere.
Mrs. Palin is not.
The others are subject to oversight and compliance at multiple levels, like the Federal Elections Commission, state public office statutory compliance, state and federal public disclosure laws, state and federal ethics regulations, etc.
Mrs. Palin is not.
Mrs. Palin is not a professional in any industry; she has no job. Politics is her hobby. A hobby that she can afford to indulge, thanks to media attention lavished on her, feeding the American public's voracious appetite for all things célébrité.
The more appropriate question would be more like how much do Paris Hilton and Kate Joselin spend.
No matter what other PAC's do or do not do,there is no debating this PAC is being run poorly if only $2 out of every $100 donated this past quarter went to candidates. At this rate, I'd NEVER donate to a PAC but to the candidate directly. I certainly wouldn't want to let $arah Palin decide how my money was going to be spent, whether it was on outrageous consulting fees or her friends, I mean employees salaries. The total donations of just under $65k for 2009 with a total intake of donations totaling $2.1 million means she gave 3% of her money raised to candidates. Considering she gave the vast majority on 12/31/2009, including her overwhelming donation of $1000 to the Down Syndrome Foundation, it appears as if the majority of them were just an afterthought to be doled out before the end of the year filing.
The most perplexing question would be how do you run a book tour that is sponsored by Harper Collins and yet charge expenses for the same to your PAC and gain admission to military bases? You lie and say it's a book tour, not a campaign! You know that is the one thing at which $arah never fails, getting around those pesky rules.
It's even more surprising that she hasn't made more personal donations, especially considering her $12 million haul since she upped and quit last year.
She has managed to accrue more money in one year than the net worth of the President - a super successful author married to a professional with a lucrative job of her own.
Palin wants money, pure and simple. I am in no way surprised that she hasn't donated the $100,000 she received from the so-called 'grassroots' Tea Party rally...I half expected her not to. Self aggrandizement is her goal. It's shallow and it certainly isn't pretty.
Hey, CG, what office does Romney hold?
And why does Pawlenty spend so much of his state's time running around raising money?
It's really quite simple:
Sarah Palin is a FRAUD.
The truth will out. You'll see.
The woman raised 700k at the Bachmann fundraiser alone. She donated her $100,000 speaking fee back to the Ohio Right-to-Life organization. She endorsed Sean Duffy and helped him raise over 25k in his money bomb. Reports say that in total she's raised over $2 million for conservative and Republican causes so far.
But never let the facts get in the way of a good Sarah Palin hit piece.
As to "she's a fraud, folks", thankfully, the majority of people in this country are well aware of that although there are still a very, very, very small minority of people who actually believe she could be President. They are delusional to the point that they will not allow anything negative to any degree to be said about her. You can't even constructively criticize their quitter-in-chief without them throwing a major hissy fit. How very sad that anyone would think there is a current or former politician in the world of which nothing negative could be written but as I said, they're delusional.
When will you vet the President?
I know you really don't care to read the report
http://twitter.com/benpolitico/status/12187796561
"She donated her $100,000 speaking fee back to the Ohio Right-to-Life organization."
That's another $100k speaking fee, The one Reid Wilson can't find any evidence of is the one for the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville.
Finally some people get it -- this has to be one of the absolute worst run PACs ever. Anyone donating to SarahPAC should have their head examined.
Spending that much on expenses and donating so little to candidates is not what a PAC is supposed to do. What do her consultants do for the kind of money a month.
She is scamming those that cannot see the forest for the trees. Getting more obvious by the day.
SarahPAC also didn't file the 3rd quarter report due in October until the end of the year report when they filed both. On the 3rd quarter report she spent $260+ for food at Yankee stadium. Her PAC is nothing but a slush fund for her and her friends. Anyone donating to it needs their head examined.
The way I read it she's spent ten times as much
as Romney on candidates
FREE AND STRONG AMERICA PAC, INC – JANUARY 2010
$66,500 for telemarketing for PAC
$85,000 for printing/postage for PAC
$16,000 graphic design and creative fees for PAC
$6,000 for data management for direct marketing
$42,000 web services
$13,000 e-strategy consulting and phone service
$23,000 for financial consulting
$1,500 in bank fees
$2,800 for travel expense reimbursement
and $99 to “House Victory 2010″ (In-Kind – List Rental – Fair market value)
FREE AND STRONG AMERICA PAC, INC – FEBRUARY 2010
$29,000 for telemarketing for PAC
$67,500 for printing/postage for PAC
$10,500 for PAC promotional material
$7,000 for data management for direct marketing
$64,000 web services
$28,000 for financial consulting
$5,000 in bank fees
$2,500 travel expenses
and $827.63 to the “Mass. Republican State Congressional Committee”
Excellent job.
Hey Adam_ME,
No one's disputing she draws crowds and raises money. The "hit piece," as you've so inaccurately described this, is about mismanagement of her PAC and how little of the money goes to where she advertises it will goe to. Your comment is embarassing in its knee-jerk way of changing the subject when it's about something you want to block from your view. You actually defend this woman's fraud? You're a fool... and your comment proves it for all to see.
Sarah's supporters do not care about hearing anything accept that "Sarah is great!!! Yeah!!!"
Sarah Palin is a quitter and a grifter who is the luckiest woman alive. She was plucked from obscurity and she has become a multimillionaire while doing nothing for anyone but herself.
The issue of how much money her PAC raises and spends is different. Palin won't run for president unless she can become richer and unless she can have her ego boosted. The money PAC's spend is another issue.
I do not begrudge the money spent on consultants and hotels and salaries. I do resent how corrupt our Political Discourse is.
It IS a good question to ask of any PAC or any candidate, "How is the money spent?"
Obviously, much of the money that is raised in American Politics supports an elite Political Class who work the cliche 24/7 on Politics and who therefore spend a lot of money on Hotels, dinners, and spreading around the idea that their candidate is well-funded.
I do not begrudge the money spent on consultants and hotels and salaries. I do resent how corrupt our Political Discourse is.
Sarah Palin is a joke plain & simple
Considering that the Sarah PAC has made $55K in contributions thru March 2010, one has to wonder what the purpose was by Mr. Reid in selecting only the 1st quarter donations, and ignoring the contributions made prior to Jan 2010.
And oh, my.... what a novelty that a jet parked in Alaska during a not-so-global-warming winter requires frequent de'icing.
The reason Mr. Reid only spoke of the first quarter donations is most likely because that was the report just released. The last report was for the year ending 12/31/2009 in which she gave a total of $65k yet took in a total of $2.1 million. She started the year with $900k so she spent $1.2 million on expenses. As it says in another post she's giving 2 to 3% of the total contributions to candidates. I think it is far better to give the money right to the candidate you want to support especially since you have no idea who the PAC is actually going to give the money to, nor if you'll agree with their spending habits. After reviewing SarahPAC's spending habits and others, none of which I've thought to be conservative in nature, I'd say that would be good advice to follow.
Yes, a jet parked in Alaska needs to be de-iced, that's not unusual. The small amount of donations in relation to her expenses, such as de-icing is unusual. After all, it's not her money and if she doesn't give it all to candidates, she won't be able to keep it for a campaign for herself (not that I think she will ever run). Sarah has proven she is a typical politician, capable of the same mistakes as most others and guilty of the same, too.
Palin is a huckster and a grifter of the highest order. The rubes who donate to her PAC are probably the same ones buying Goldline crap from Beck. Please, let's focus on real Republicans, like Paul Ryan etc. Huey Long in a skirt is the ticket to oblivion.
Hey, I really like the design of your site. What theme are you using?
It's obvious that most of the commenters here have no idea how a PAC works. For an ideological PAC, the amount given directly to candidates is usually a small percentage of what is raised. This is because a PAC can only give a small amount directly to a candidate.
What a PAC can do which is a vastly better use of its funds is independent expenditures. When someone like Sarah Palin comes into your district for you it raises huge amounts of money for the event she does and the subsequent press helps a candidate raise money using her personality.
Whether Palin's PAC is well run or not I don't know but it is certainly to early in the cycle to ascertain that. We will need to look at all of the PAC activities after the November elections.
What the PAC does in its entirety by the end of the cycle will be telling. What they've done up to this point is irrelevant in determining what value Palin brings to individual candidates.
Many thanks for this wonderful sharing of this. How much time did it cause you to create such a online site? Did you pay people to do it? Just to share that Alexa bar is a good plugin to track the popularity of your site. Do check it out when you have time. Cheers!
Normally I don't leave comments but I felt I needed to tell you I love the blog.
Who cares how much she spends de-icing the plane. De-icing is critical to flight operation. If the place isn't de-iced, it will crash. De-icing is a necesity of travel. Also, given the hassle of TSA travel, private jet makes sense for her busy life.
Ms. Palin is showing how capitalism works. Tbose that critisize her having a few comforts in travel do not understand capitalism. Socialists want everybody to travel the same -- crowded coach.
Good for Sarah. Most presidents wait until after being president to make $100k per speech. Sarah bypassed the lousy job and went right for the big money. Nothing wrong with that.
OMG, this woman must be an embarrassment to the Republican or whatever party she claims to belong to at the time. Not to mention that she's an embarrassment to the whole country at the same time. When people from other countries hear her give a screech (speech), what do you think goes through their minds? It's unlikely to be flattering to the U.S.A.
Hey, I found this nice website :) You can watch movies for free and the quality is great. The only lame thing is that you have to fill out a free and very easy survey, to unlock the movies. But i guess two minutes of "work" aren´t to much for watching high quality cinema movies, right? I hope you enjoy the website as i did. By the way the website i´m talking about is http://moviemaze.us ;)
With all the serious, an unconstitutional, criminal stunts being pulled by the Socialist Democratic party, one would think you could honestly come up with something significant on which to waste your time, like total loss of American's freedom under the crooked politicians we have in both parties.
Damn, awesome website. I actually came across this on Yahoo, and I am happy I did. I will definately be coming back here more often. Wish I could add to the conversation and bring a bit more to the table, but am just absorbing as much info as I can at the moment.
Thank You
Holiday Villas in Portugal
Wait...she lives in ALASKA and she de-ices her planes wings....sounds SMART and NECESSARY to me? Its ludicrous that someone would yell over how much is spent de-icing planes wings when someone lives in Alaska. I am assuming most of the de-icing occurred there, although while traveling it could have been needed other places too in winter. I am SURE some would rather she NOT de-ice the plane wings lol.... :) People really need to GET A LIFE and quit being petty.
She has helped alot of candidates, and she has her own SarahPAC. Like her or not, people need to stop hating and making up stories where there ISNT ONE.....
Simple question: Its her SarahPAC...people give to it VOLUNTARILY, if they dont LIKE how the money is spent they can complain over that or STOP giving ? IF you PERSONALLY did NOT give to it...what RIGHT do YOU have to complain? Just sayin? Sounds like some jealous haters are on this site...NOONE is FORCING you to give, however you WILL BE FORCED to pay for crappy Obama health care soon. That outta give you something to SCREAM OVER ? IF its NOT your money, its legal, and not being stolen.....maybe you should mind your OWN affairs? Just sayin lol?
Damn, awesome website. I actually came across this on Google, and I am happy I did. I will definately be coming back here more often. Wish I could add to the conversation and bring a bit more to the table, but am just absorbing as much info as I can at the moment.
Thank You
Holiday Villas in Portugal
Damn, awesome website. I actually came across this on Yahoo, and I am happy I did. I will definately be coming back here more often. Wish I could add to the conversation and bring a bit more to the table, but am just absorbing as much info as I can at the moment.
Thank You
I use Twitter for marketing by Tweeting on "how to do this" tips whereby I write up a mini "how to" article on my blog which you may get to (LOL) and then Tweet the message I post in Twitter.
50 cent is way over rated. He should have stopped after he put out "In the Club". Nice post, but i can't say that I like hearing about fifty cent.
I have been searching for a good supplement to help me get to sleep too. Melatonin has bad side effects. I read about Calms Forte 4 Kids. That link goes to a review. You think its as good as they say?
I assume I should use a power surge breaker with the massive number of electronics in my house. Would it be cheaper to get a power surge breaker for the entire house such as this whole house surge protector that this review website talks about? Seems like it would be less expensive to buy one good protector for the entire house against having 1 for everyplace I've got a lot of electronics. What do you guys think?
I have been searching for a good supplement to help me get to sleep too. Melatonin has bad side effects. I read about Calms Forte 4 Kids. That link goes to a review. You think its as good as they say?
For a Beginner like me it’s perfect advice. Thank you, Amit
I have been searching for a nice product to help me get to sleep too. Melatonin has bad side effects. I read about Calms Forte 4 Kids. That link goes to a review. You think its as good as they say?
I certainly like your website structure it's so clean, simple to read. My partner and i have just recently created a new bit-torrent site for games (nintendo wii, pc,ds lite,xbox,ps2 etc). If you have a min check out my link thanks.
I would like to share a great website, which offers high quality watches replicas for a low price: http://www.topreplicastore.com/?aid=rxg
Internet payday loan
I like that you can enter info at your leisure, so once the 1098s and W2s start trickling in, I can update my return. Once the last piece of paper comes in, I am ready to file in a matter of minutes.
NC does not stand a chance. Unless a company has a "Nexus" in a state, they are not required to collect sales tax. The onus of paying the sales tax is the person making the purchase.
I say we should boycott any retailer that agrees to this. NC has no claim to those dollars! I've said it before and I'll say it again. If you bought something in SC or TN you paid sales tax there and you are not required to pay sales tax in NC when you bring it back. So how is this different? The sale didn't happen here, I just didn't have to drive all the way across the line
Instructions for Form 5329, return for additional taxes attributable to qualified retirement plans (including IRAs), annuities, and modified endowment contracts (SuDoc T 22.51:5329/INST./)
I really love movies I couldn't really live without...
Very good post. I've found your site via Bing and I'm really happy about the information you provide in your posts.
Btw your sites layout is really messed up on the Kmelon browser. Would be cool if you could fix that.
Anyhow keep up the great work!
Looks that you are completely right!!11 I will repost this in my private blog to argue with readers...
Nice post, look forward to visiting again soon. Will retweet this one for you, so others can enoy.
Some Things You Should Notice When Buying Replica Handbags
I found your blog via google and glad about the info you provide in your posts. Btw your sites broken using firefox4
Selling gift certificates is one way contented customers can pass on your name to their friends and loved ones, establishing a referral program is another way. In that case, you postulate content clients to pass on your occupation cards. If a acquaintance or family member comes in and mentions their name, that client gets some form of appreciation from you: a gracious thank you card, a discount on their future appointment, or an additional 15 minutes when you have time!
i love what are you doing with it Milgauss,
Stumbled into this site by chance but I’m sure glad I clicked on that link. You definitely answered all the questions I’ve been dying to answer for some time now. Will definitely come back for more of this. Thank you so much
We are a group of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community. Your blog provided us valuable information to work on.You have done a marvellous job!
And how about adding some more images? I’m not trying to offend anyone, page is really great. But according to the scientists humans acquire info much more efficient if they see certain useful images.
Steaven Drawledge
The Nexus One is a nice device, but I think the iPhone is better. It has more functions and Apple has more experience with handys.
Thanks for sharing this with us