Posted on 08/13/2007 8:44:35 AM PDT by Calpernia
Southern donors, lawyers, retirees and investors are major backers to the undeclared candidate's exploratory committee, the Center for Responsive Politics finds.
Although Republican Fred Thompson has not officially declared his candidacy for president, he was required to file the financial report for his "testing the waters" efforts by July 31. His "Friends of Fred Thompson" exploratory committee is a 527 committee, which reports to the IRS, not yet a campaign committee that would report to the FEC. Critics have accused Thompson of dodging the disclosure rules that other candidates must abide by, while the former "Law and Order" actor has said he's just making sure there's enough interest in him as a candidate to make a formal bid.
Much of Thompson's money seemed to come from his home state of Tennessee. His supporters thus far include Howard Baker, a former U.S. senator from the state; Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, who played for the University of Tennessee in college; and William Haslam, mayor of Knoxville. While Thompson's total haul shown here is nothing to scoff at by previous elections' standards, it wasn't the $5 million his aides hoped for.
Contributions to Fred Thompson
Sector Totals
| |
Sector | Total |
|
|
Finance/Insurance/RealEstate | $585,375 |
Other | $339,925 |
Lawyers & Lobbyists | $326,925 |
Misc Business | $296,862 |
Construction | $117,000 |
|
|
Health | $115,150 |
Communications/Electronics | $83,914 |
Energy/Natural Resources | $59,500 |
Transportation | $53,300 |
Agribusiness | $28,250 |
Ideology/Single-Issue | $24,450 |
|
|
Defense | $8,100 |
|
Industry Totals
| |
Industry | Total |
|
|
Lawyers/Law Firms | $318,525 |
Retired | $248,475 |
Real Estate | $218,250 |
Securities & Investment | $140,825 |
Misc Finance | $115,650 |
|
|
Misc Business | $93,550 |
Business Services | $77,462 |
Health Professionals | $58,350 |
Commercial Banks | $56,500 |
General Contractors | $54,750 |
Civil Servants/Public Officials | $47,550 |
|
|
Retail Sales | $40,800 |
Insurance | $35,150 |
Oil & Gas | $34,050 |
TV/Movies/Music | $33,875 |
Building Materials & Equipment | $32,750 |
|
|
Computers/Internet | $30,500 |
Misc Manufacturing & Distributing | $30,050 |
Food & Beverage | $27,800 |
Education | $27,750 |
|
Top Ten Donors
| |
Donor | Total |
|
|
INS Capital Management | $27,600 |
|
|
Gannon International | $21,612 |
DT McCall & Sons | $20,700 |
Akin, Gump et al | $18,900 |
Barrett, Burke et al | $16,100 |
Jones Management Services | $13,800 |
|
|
HJ Kalikow & Co | $13,800 |
Friedman, Fleischer & Lowe | $13,800 |
Guggenheim Advisors | $12,500 |
Byrd & Stitzel | $11,500 |
|
Information taken from data filed with the IRS.
Fred Thompson's Contributions by Location
Top 10 States
| |
State | Total |
|
|
Tennessee | $1,302,167 |
Texas | $337,450 |
New York | $195,100 |
Virginia | $193,131 |
|
|
California | $166,120 |
Florida | $148,900 |
Georgia | $121,900 |
Louisiana | $83,500 |
Mississippi | $54,175 |
Maryland | $50,350 |
|
Top 10 Metro Areas
| |
Metro Area | Total |
|
|
Nashville | $576,517 |
|
|
Knoxville | $277,550 |
Washington, DC-MD-VA-WV | $248,431 |
New York | $133,400 |
Dallas | $100,250 |
Fort Worth-Arlington | $91,800 |
Memphis, TN-AR-MS | $74,350 |
|
|
Atlanta | $71,400 |
Chattanooga, TN-GA | $69,350 |
Houston | $62,550 |
|
Information taken from data filed with the IRS.
Fred Thompson's Expenses
Top 10 Expenditures
| |
Recipient | Total Expenditure |
|
|
StraightLine | $66,750 |
|
|
i Web Strategies | $65,363 |
|
|
Project Performance Corp | $49,738 |
Fall School Business Center | $39,051 |
Internal Revenue Service | $35,031 |
Kaegi Resources | $35,000 |
CMDI | $33,137 |
|
|
Phil Martin | $32,526 |
|
|
Bryan Cave, LLP | $25,322 |
New Media Strategies | $21,142 |
|
Expenditures by Category
| |
Sector | Total |
|
|
Administrative | $499,339 |
Fundraising | $86,719 |
Media | $21,350 |
|
|
Campaign Expenses | $15,000 |
|
|
Contributions | $2,725 |
Unknown | $613 |
GRAND TOTAL | $625,746 |
|
Expenditures taken from data filed with the IRS.
Washington DC and New York are numbers 3 and 4.
How utterly fascinating!
Maybe, I’ve been on board with Fred but I’m pretty sick of waiting.
After seeing Huckabee get #2 in the straw poll and him being THE FairTax candidate I’m hoping he gets more press now and they quick blacking him out. If he does start to get the press he deserves I’ll go for him unless Fred specifically endorses the Fair Tax by name and not just some crappy lip service to tax reform BS like the other “conservatives” have.
Sure, Huckabee’s great on taxes:
Is Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee a Pro-Growth, Economic Conservative?
Taxes
The Club for Growth is committed to lower taxes across the board. Lower taxes on work, savings, and investments lead to greater levels of these activities, thus encouraging greater economic growth.
Governor Huckabee touts himself as an economic conservative, writing in his biography that he “pushed through the Arkansas legislature the first major, broad-based tax cuts in state history” and “led efforts to establish a Property Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights” early on as governor (Arkansas Times 09/22/05), but he only offers a small piece of the picture. It is true that Governor Huckabee fought for an $80 million tax cut package in 1997 that was passed by the Arkansas legislature (Cato Policy Analysis No. 315, 09/03/98); cut the state capital gains tax in 1999 (The Commercial Appeal 02/29/99); and passed the Property Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights in the same year, limiting the increase in property taxes to 10% a year for individuals and 5% per taxing unit (AP 03/16/99). However, his record over the rest of his ten-year tenure tells a starkly different story.
Immediately upon taking office, Governor Huckabee signed a sales tax hike in 1996 to fund the Games and Fishing Commission and the Department of Parks and Tourism (Cato Policy Analysis No. 315, 09/03/98).
He supported an internet sales tax in 2001 (Americans for Tax Reform 01/07/07).
He publicly opposed the repeal of a sales tax on groceries and medicine in 2002 (Arkansas News Bureau 08/30/02).
He signed bills raising taxes on gasoline (1999), cigarettes (2003) (Americans for Tax Reform 01/07/07), and a $5.25 per day bed-tax on private nursing home patients in 2001 (Arkansas New Bureau 03/01/01).
He proposed another sales take hike in 2002 to fund education improvements (Arkansas News Bureau 12/05/02).
He opposed a congressional measure to ban internet taxes in 2003 (Arkansas News Bureau 11/21/03).
In 2004, he allowed a 17% sales tax increase to become law (The Gurdon Times 03/02/04).
By the end of his ten-year tenure, Governor Huckabee was responsible for a 37% higher sales tax in Arkansas, 16% higher motor fuel taxes, and 103% higher cigarette taxes according to Americans for Tax Reform (01/07/07), garnering a lifetime grade of D from the free-market Cato Institute. While he is on record supporting making the Bush tax cuts permanent, he joined Democrats in criticizing the Republican Party for tilting its tax policies “toward the people at the top end of the economic scale” (Washington Examiner 09/13/06), even though objective evidence demonstrates that the Bush tax cuts have actually shifted the tax burden to higher income taxpayers.
Finally, Governor Huckabee opposed further tax cuts at a 2005 gathering of Iowa conservatives (AP 09/17/05). On January 28, 2007, Governor Huckabee refused to pledge not to raise taxes if elected President, first on Meet the Press and then at the National Review Conservative Summit. The evidence suggests that his commitment to protecting taxpayers evidenced in his early gubernatorial years may be a thing of the past.
Spending
The Club for Growth is committed to reducing government spending. Less spending enhances economic growth by enabling lower taxes and diminishing the economically inefficient political allocation of resources.
Under Governor Huckabee’s watch, state spending increased a whopping 65.3% from 1996 to 2004, three times the rate of inflation (Americans for Tax Reform 01/07/07). The number of state government workers rose 20% during his tenure (Arkansas Leader 04/15/06), and the state’s general obligation debt shot up by almost $1 billion, according to Americans for Tax Reform. The massive increase in government spending is due in part to the number of new programs and expansion of already existing programs initiated by Governor Huckabee, including ARKids First, a multimillion-dollar government program to provide health coverage for thousands of Arkansas’ children (Arkansas News Bureau 04/13/06).
These large increases in government borrowing and spending significantly impede economic growth.
http://www.clubforgrowth.org/2007/01/a_report_on_mike_huckabees_fis.php
Well no-one can say he’s in the pocket of Big Oil....:^)
Turn out was VERY low.
People don’t make a political decision, let’ see ... over one year in advance. Mitt is just having his moment of fame ... like Rudy did ... as they get to know these loose cannons they back off.
Common sense should tell anyone that NO conservative would ever get elected in Mass.. or is it taxachussetts - he’s just another liberal ... as a former governor there, I’m not surprised at his winking at homosexuals and his wife writing out a check to Planned Parenthood ... people KNOW who they write checks out to ... they might not remember the exact date but they KNOW who they support ... .
That’s a pretty lame record, on par with the other executives he’s running against, BUT he is the only one besides Tancredo that is running solidly on the FairTax. I believe this is something that if implemented would cure America of many of it’s economic and social problems, get us out of China’s shadow and bring more freedom and liberty to every individual.
That is a big deal. I didn’t give a crap about Huckabee until I heard him publicly endorse the FairTax. If Fred did this then it’s a total lock for me in his camp. When I heard the others answer the question on George Snuffalufagus’s Sunday morning debate I gained a lot of respect for him, didn’t have any to lose for Rudy but was confirmed in my belief that he is as dangerous as Hitlery, and saw Romney for the rich elitist beholden to global corporations that he is.
If any FairTaxers are reading this, you should press the screws to FDT about this and get him to clearly endorse or cast off the FairTax.
Since Huckabee began to publicly endorse the FairTax he’s become a viable alternative.
Ron Paul was until he sounded like a goof when he tried to explain his stance on Iraq. I agree with his principles in this regard and he is right that we should have formal declarations of war by Congress prior to engaging in conflicts so that there will be a clear winner and loser and the tapeworms can’t wriggle out of thier support or non support later on.
I just don’t want to get disappointed and I’m losing interest. If I’m losing interest in FDT, then I’m sure many others are too. Now if FDT would endorse the FairTax as it is written nobody could swing my vote any other way but to him.
Articles keep mentioning this figure. Just who started that idea of a $5 million 'stated goal'? I haven't read anything on Fred's website or anywhere else where someone in his organization stated that amount. I just figured it was like the supposed announcement date of July 4th that kept getting bandied about, and for which Fred was bashed in the press when it didn't materialize. It was speculation, too.
The sentence said the number was from Fred’s aides.
::shrugs::
Sheesh, what an ugly wedding dress. The ‘bouquet’ is so huge it looks like she’s carrying a rifle. I just can’t envision this woman as First Lady. No way.
Wrong..Fred’s feet dragging, flip flopping and “testing the waters” is getting tiresome and lame. Not the sign of a leader.
**************
That's all that matters. Her wedding dress.
He missed his opportunity to declare back in May. To run such a lackluster campaign with as much groundswell as he’s had doesn’t bode well for his chances. What’s most puzzling is how a veteran of Hollywood doesn’t realize that good or bad - the political atmosphere demands Hollywood-esque marketing to the public for any meaningful attention to be received. While Thompson is waiting for the tea kettle to whistle, this is turning into the 2008 Democratic Presidential Election.
I see folks already going through campaign fatigue - they’re sick of it already. They’re sick of the narcissistic candidates boasting about what they won’t all do even though they had EVERY OPPORTUNITY to do it while they were in office this past year.
I see folks already going through campaign fatigue - they’re sick of it already. They’re sick of the narcissistic candidates boasting about what they won’t all do even though they had EVERY OPPORTUNITY to do it while they were in office this past year.
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