Author Topic: Trump, Carson, and Santorum burn through campaign cash fastest  (Read 1154 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Formerly Once-Ler

  • Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 0
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/07/15/trump-carson-and-santorum-burn-through-campaign-cash-fastest/

The so-called burn rate -- comparing money raised with money spent -- showed Trump in the lead, spending 74 percent of  the campaign funds he has raised so far in his official campaign account.  The New York real estate and entertainment magnate is running ahead of other candidates in recent polls.

Carson, the Baltimore neurosurgeon, burned through 64 percent of the money he has raised to date, putting him close to Rick Santorum, who had a 62 percent burn rate, according to numbers filed
Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission.

Trump spent heavily on travel and staff, including more than $506,486 on private jet services. In total, Trump's campaign reported spending about $1.5 million dollars as of June 30 from his mostly self-funded campaign.

Typically candidates hold on to the funds they raise early in a campaign.  But this year there is enormous pressure on candidates  to maintain visibility and credibility in an unusually crowded GOP field.

Despite Trump's recent rise in polls, burn rate is not necessarily an indication of success. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who also ranks at the top of recent polls, reported a burn rate of 27 percent.

The Bush campaign spent slightly more than $3 million in the two weeks after Bush announced his campaign in mid-June, primarily on operational fees, including around $400,000 on legal consulting fees. Expenditure reports showed large payments went to political consultants, including more than $350,000 to FP1 Strategies, the firm founded by Bush campaign manager Danny Diaz. Senior adviser Sally Bradshaw was paid $25,550, including $13,300 for her work while Bush was “testing the waters.”

Bush, who touted support for Uber in face of warnings from Hillary Clinton about economic questions raised by the "sharing economy," spent $1,396 on Uber rides.

Hillary Clinton's filing revealed a burn rate of 39 percent compared with 20 percent for her nearest challenger, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Clinton, who raised the largest sums of any official campaign, was quick to start spending money. Her committee raced through nearly $19 million in less than three months, even before beginning expensive TV buys. Millions went to hire hundreds of staffers, a sign of how rapidly it has sought to ramp up a national infrastructure.

A quick review of spending by Carson and Santorum showed that the three  were spending a lot on fundraising efforts.

This spending appears to have paid off in one way way for Carson, who reported a large number of small donors. All told, Carson received $5.7 million from donors  contributing less than $250 each. His high proportion of small donors was exceeded only by by Sanders, whose small-donation haul topped $10.4 million, about 68 percent of his entire campaign receipts. Overall, Sanders reports show a burn rate of 20 percent.

Another GOP candidate, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, collected a little more than $2 million this cycle, and spent $1.1 million, giving him a burn rate of 56 percent.

Huckabee’s spending for his 2016 run so far includes consulting fees and salaries for a lot of familiar names from his 2008 bid. Other than the campaign’s American Express bills, Huckabee paid the Wickers firm, where his son-in-law Bryan  Sanders is a partner, the biggest single check: $55,586 for media consultant services.

Firm CEO Bob Wickers is Huckabee’s political and media consultant. Huckabee’s daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is managing her father’s campaign this time around. She advised Tom Cotton in his winning Senate campaign last year and managed John Boozman’s 2010 Senate bid against incumbent Blanche Lincoln.

Another sizable payment went to the Political Law Group, Doug Chalmer’s political law firm in Georgia, which received $52,773. Next came Unisource Direct, a Wisconsin firm, which collected $39, 459 for direct mail services.  The campaign  also wrote checks totaling $20,107 to J. Hogan Gidley and $18,524 to Alice Tadlock, both of whom worked on Huckabee’s 2008 campaign and are leaders in Huckabee’s 2016 communications strategy. Gidley also directed HUCK PAC, Huckabee’s political action committee.

Huckabee's close rival for support from Christian conservatives, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, was behind Huckabee in his rate of spending with a burn rate of 54 percent.

Rubio, who filed late in the evening Wednesday, showed a burn rate of 35 percent and a hefty total of $9.9 million cash on hand.
« Last Edit: July 16, 2015, 07:14:10 am by Once-Ler »

Offline EC

  • Shanghaied Editor
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 23,804
  • Gender: Male
  • Cats rule. Dogs drool.
Re: Trump, Carson, and Santorum burn through campaign cash fastest
« Reply #1 on: July 16, 2015, 07:45:48 am »
How is burn rate a useful measure, other than to give you some idea of the politician's (and campaign staff's) priorities and how they perceive THEIR chances?

Not being aggressive or denigrating the worth of the article, it's simply a metric I've never heard of used.
« Last Edit: July 16, 2015, 07:52:15 am by EC »
The universe doesn't hate you. Unless your name is Tsutomu Yamaguchi

Avatar courtesy of Oceander

I've got a website now: Smoke and Ink

Offline Formerly Once-Ler

  • Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 0
Re: Trump, Carson, and Santorum burn through campaign cash fastest
« Reply #2 on: July 17, 2015, 04:49:11 am »
How is burn rate a useful measure, other than to give you some idea of the politician's (and campaign staff's) priorities and how they perceive THEIR chances?

Not being aggressive or denigrating the worth of the article, it's simply a metric I've never heard of used.

It's good indicator of an efficient campaign.  High burn rates can identify candidates who are in it to make fame rather than win.

It can also indicate a campaign that is spending all it's money to raise money.  Raising millions is less impressive when it is all spent on raising money. 

Offline Formerly Once-Ler

  • Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 0
Re: Trump, Carson, and Santorum burn through campaign cash fastest
« Reply #3 on: July 17, 2015, 04:52:07 am »
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/07/15/burn-rate-how-candidates-are-spending-their-cash/

Presidential candidates on Wednesday filed campaign-finance disclosures showing how much money they had raised and who was bankrolling their campaigns. But their filings also offered a window into another key metric: How quickly campaigns are burning through their cash.

Of the eight candidates who had so far filed their disclosures with the Federal Election Commission as of late Wednesday afternoon, Republicans Ben Carson and Rick Santorum have spent the largest shares of the money they raised—64% and 62%, respectively. The Carson campaign spent the bulk of its $8.5 million raised in the second quarter on fundraising costs, an official said. The Santorum operation spent nearly a quarter of the $395,000 it spent on direct mail and website development.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are Democrat Bernie Sanders and Republican Jeb Bush, who each spent a low share of their hauls—20% and 27%, respectively. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal spent the smallest percentage of his funds—though he also raised the least money in the GOP field, of those whose totals are publicly available.

Republicans Mike Huckabee and Rick Perry each spent about half of the money they raised in the second quarter.

Early in the campaign, candidates usually like to hold on to their funds before loosening the purse strings closer to the primaries. But with the first GOP debate coming soon—putting pressure on candidates to stay in the top 10 in national polls in order to qualify—candidates may be spending more to boost their profiles in coming weeks.

Candidates also covered a wide spectrum in terms of how much of their money came from large donations. Messrs. Perry and Bush were on the upper end, each raising around 92% of their funds from people who gave more than $200—the FEC’s cutoff for “small” donations. Messrs. Carson and Sanders, both of whom appeal to the populist wings of their parties, raised considerably smaller portions of their money from large donations—21% and 2%, respectively.

To be sure, tallying the percentage of fundraising that comes from small or large donors offers only one side of the picture.  Campaigns often prefer to tout the percentage of donors that gave under a certain amount. Hillary Clinton, for example, who will file with the FEC by midnight Wednesday, has touted the fact that 90% of her donations were for $100 or less, but she raised $45 million in the second quarter, meaning she won plenty of larger contributions, too.

Offline jmyrlefuller

  • J. Myrle Fuller
  • Cat Mod
  • *****
  • Posts: 22,326
  • Gender: Male
  • Realistic nihilist
    • Fullervision
Re: Trump, Carson, and Santorum burn through campaign cash fastest
« Reply #4 on: July 17, 2015, 11:24:53 am »
How is burn rate a useful measure, other than to give you some idea of the politician's (and campaign staff's) priorities and how they perceive THEIR chances?

Not being aggressive or denigrating the worth of the article, it's simply a metric I've never heard of used.
If they have a high spending rate, especially if they don't have very good fundraising totals or personal wealth, basic economics says they'll run out of money quickly, and no money = no campaign. People like Santorum and Carson are, under that metric, in serious trouble.

Trump, on the other hand, always has liked to spend with reckless abandon and has the resources to do it, so it's not much of a problem for him—that is, assuming he wants to stay in for the long haul.
New profile picture in honor of Public Domain Day 2024