What were the financial details?
The Campaign began September with $50,078 cash on hand, took in almost $161,000, and spent nearly $189,000. Actual disbursements for thirteen campaign associates, some new, included:
Ray Acosta $2,500
Jim Babka $4,799
Sue Babka $ 85
Robert Brunner $2,500
Laura Carno $5,000
Robert DeVoil $4,566
Robert Flohr $1,562
Ryan Goldfinger $941
Debra Greeson $2,150
Anthony Hogan $300
Jennifer Willis $2,000
Steve Willis $6,190
Perry Willis $5,000
TOTAL: $35,093
Payments to firms of long-time associates included:
New Media $4000
Optopia $5654
Web Commanders $2160
TOTAL $11,815
Other vendors included
The Firm Multimedia $33,248 (run TV ads)
Hotels $32,093 (catering and refreshments,rooms)
Polaris Productions $19,000 (ad production)
Seabreeze Travel $9,569 (travel)
Accumail $8,491 (mailing)
Liam Works $5,000 (publications)
Newman Communications $4,667 (publicity)
Cardservice $2,852 (credit card service)
Disbursements to the campaign’s associates came to 17% of income. Their firms received another 6%. The candidate received $7,500 in repayment of his loans to the campaign, but nothing for expenses.
October 1-18
The final pre-election FEC report covered the period October 1-18, 2000. On October 18, the Campaign announced spending $27,369 to buy prime time on the Science Fiction Channel. This announcement is supported by the FEC report for this period, which ended on October 18. The purchased time was for the Browne Campaign’s ‘new drug ad’; the ads began running on October 23. In the same LibertyWire announcement, Browne’s campaign also promised ‘We are doing everything we can to maximize outreach in these final weeks.’ We’ll see below what the campaign meant by ‘everything’, ‘maximize’, and ‘outreach’.
During this period, Browne 2000 also paid $35,000 to Polaris Productions for its services. The Campaign had returned to its usual practice of paying more to produce television ads than to air them.
In early and mid-October the Browne Campaign received slightly more than $167,000 in donations and spent roughly $163,000, leaving it with almost $26,000 cash on hand as the critical final weeks of the campaign began. Fourteen people were given money, some to a very limited extent, by the campaign. They received:
Jim Babka $4,643
Sue Babka $248
Robert Brunner $2,500
Laura Carno $3,088
Robert DeVoil $5,064
Robert Flohr $1,451
Debra Greeson $1,207
Penny Nicolai $690
Stuart Reges $2,000
Jennifer Willis $2,557
Steve Willis $3,486
Stephanie Yanik $3,000
TOTAL: $31,300
In the first three weeks of October the campaign’s associates received 19% of campaign spending for the period. Their firms received disbursements amounting to another 6% of campaign funding. These amounts do not include $2000 paid to Richard Dingman of Vienna, VA for legal services. No payments to Campaign Chair Perry Willis are recorded.
Firms of associates received:
New Media $4,000
Optopia $5,695
TOTAL $9,695
There were also external vendors, the largest being
Polaris Productions $35,000
The Firm Multimedia $27,469
Hotels $16,787
Seabreeze Travel $7,693
Copy Right $7,500 (video tapes)
Call Center $6,262
Card Service $4,919
Accumail $1,112
The Campaign continued to spend large sums ($7500 this month) to duplicate video tapes. A hotel charge includes $4900 for the Fox Theater of Atlanta. The regular monthly rent for the headquarters was $1800. Utilities not listed separately led off with $1337 for telephone.
