3 Days Until the Election- How to Spend $141K in 30 Days

Yesterday, we talked about how much money the candidates have raised so far and today we’ll talk about where they are spending the cash.  Or, as we pointed out last month, where we know they are spending cash even if it’s not showing up on their expenditure reports yet.

We’ll start with Smith today.  His expenditures for the reporting period were $47,291.16.  The biggest chunk of that, $19,621.34, was used for printing, and the second biggest chunk, $8,879.67 went for postage, so that accounts for all the mailers Cherokee voters have been getting.  His compensation to individuals is the third biggest expenditure, at $6,732.50.  Smith’s vendors are Oklahoma based, for the most part.  All, except for about $300 of his expenses, were paid out to people/businesses in Oklahoma.

Some of our readers have already looked the report over, and pointed out a few things.  One, Smith did copy Baker’s lead and take out some Facebook ads, and possibly some other online ads, and those are not reported yet.  Also, there was a Cherokee Phoenix story talking about a phone poll Smith did, and those expenditures aren’t on here either.

Last month, we pointed out similar discrepancies in the Baker campaign, specifically that there were no expenditures for Cherokee Phoenix ads, even though we’d all seen them.  Those expenditures show up in this month’s Baker report, so maybe there is a time lag or something after the ads or services are rendered and the time they show up as paid on the report. Baker also does not have online ads showing up on this report; but we’re not sure if he’s not run any in a while, or it may just be that it hasn’t shown up on the report yet.

Anyway, it’s something to keep an eye on after the election for both candidates.

Baker’s outspent Smith almost exactly 2-1 during this reporting period, spending $94,446.28.  Baker’s biggest category was $33,774.54 for miscellaneous, which is mostly consulting.  He also had large amounts for printing ($30,639.26) and postage ($17,889.48), and his compensation to individuals was $8,196 for the month.

Approximately $53,000 of Baker’s expenditures this month went to firms in Washington D.C. or nearby Potomac, Maryland.   So Baker spent more money in DC this past month than Smith did on his entire campaign in the same time period.