Saturday, September 10, 2011

14 Days Until the New Election: Money Money Money!


Maybe it’s a little overdue (since we’re into September), but we owe it to you, our readers, to keep up with our campaign finance watchdoggery. Mainly because no one else is really trying very hard!  We’ll look at Smith and Baker’s August 15 financial reports in the next couple of days.  Today, we’ll start with Smith and tomorrow we’ll go with Baker.

Keep in mind, this reporting period is for the calendar month of July, which, looking back, went something like recount, court appeal, second recount, court orders new election, Deputy Chief election, then we’re pretty much in August.  The new election was ordered by the Supreme Court on July 21 (see our riveting blog from that day here).

So there wasn’t much time for fundraising, or much to spend money on, for either of the candidates.
Smith started with $28,060, raised $12,890 and loaned himself $26,003.  That brings his total loans to about $40,000. Click here to reference Smith's entire report.

Interesting donors include state legislator Brian Bingman, former Cherokee Supreme Court Justice Philip Viles, and an employee Baker wrongfully accused of breaking the law. 

Smith’s expenditures for the month totaled $53,824.  The biggest expenditures were for miscellaneous/recount/election challenge, which includes paying some lawyers.  That total was $18,631.  Next was advertising, which might be bills coming in from the ads placed prior to the June election.  The total there was $16,698.

Smith’s cash on hand at the end of July was $13,129.87

Smith’s fundraising total through the whole campaign $391,565.07. On top of his $40,103.91 in loans,  Smith has had a total of $431,668.98 to spend on his campaign thus far. 

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