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Exploring Fred Thompson's Finances
Center for Responsive Politics ^ | August 03, 2007

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.



TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: donors; finances; fred; fredthompson; fundraising; money
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To: Politicalmom
I think those numbers are lookin' good.
Way to go Transportation sector!
America. Together. Again
Fred Thompson/JC Watts in '08

41 posted on 08/13/2007 10:32:08 AM PDT by papasmurf (<<<<< Click there to see my dogs! Oh, and I have FRed one liners, too.)
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To: Politicalmom; Iowa Granny

Washington DC and New York are numbers 3 and 4.

How utterly fascinating!


42 posted on 08/13/2007 10:50:19 AM PDT by prairiebreeze (PUT AMERICA AHEAD! VOTE FOR FRED!!)
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To: trisham

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.


43 posted on 08/13/2007 11:13:54 AM PDT by TheKidster (you can only trust government to grow, consolidate power and infringe upon your liberties.)
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To: TheKidster

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


44 posted on 08/13/2007 11:31:18 AM PDT by Politicalmom (Of the potential GOP front runners, FT has one of the better records on immigration.- NumbersUSA)
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To: All

Well no-one can say he’s in the pocket of Big Oil....:^)


45 posted on 08/13/2007 11:37:20 AM PDT by az_gila (AZ - need less democrats)
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To: TheKidster
I agree, it’s not easy waiting to see if and when Fred will declare, but it’s not as if there’s anyone else out there who is a viable alternative.
46 posted on 08/13/2007 11:39:37 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: cake_crumb
The “straw poll” was a bit of a joke.

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 ... .

47 posted on 08/13/2007 11:56:02 AM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God) .)
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To: nmh
The other day I read a quote from one of Duncan Hunter's staffers that this is "the start of our campaign." The idea is that, while Hunter declared months ago, he hasn't actually started campaigning until now.

Now, setting aside for the moment whether anyone actually believes that, what do you think is a better strategy? Declaring in April and beginning to campaign in August, or declaring in September and campaigning in September.

If Hunter has really not been campaigning until now, then I think he has the right idea, since any campaigning before the fall is essentially meaningless anyway, except as an opportunity to have a Makaka moment and shoot yourself in the foot. However, when you're officially in the race, people expect you to make progress, and if you aren't, your campaign is seen as moribund, and it's over before it begins.

Fred is exactly right not to begin campaigning in earnest until September, when it really starts to count, and he is exactly right not to declare his candidacy until he is good and ready to campaign. Anyone who donated to a candidate who spent millions in Iowa getting ready for this straw poll ought to demand their money back.
48 posted on 08/13/2007 12:26:00 PM PDT by The Pack Knight (Duty, Honor, Country. Right-Wing Conspirator and Friend of Fred)
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To: Politicalmom

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.


49 posted on 08/13/2007 12:33:10 PM PDT by TheKidster (you can only trust government to grow, consolidate power and infringe upon your liberties.)
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To: Calpernia
They forgot to add in... that six-pack of Keystone Light I sent Fred and Jeri!


50 posted on 08/13/2007 12:33:28 PM PDT by Bender2 (A 'Good Yankee' comes down to Texas, then goes back north. A 'Damn Yankee' stays... Damn it!)
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To: trisham

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.


51 posted on 08/13/2007 12:38:46 PM PDT by TheKidster (you can only trust government to grow, consolidate power and infringe upon your liberties.)
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To: TheKidster
The latest talk is that he’ll declare on Labor Day, which is September 3, I believe. So, about two weeks from now, give or take. Assuming he actually does what is predicted, that’s not long to wait.
52 posted on 08/13/2007 12:45:12 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: Calpernia
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.

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.

53 posted on 08/13/2007 12:48:20 PM PDT by SuziQ
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To: SuziQ

The sentence said the number was from Fred’s aides.

::shrugs::


54 posted on 08/13/2007 12:53:40 PM PDT by Calpernia (Breederville.com)
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To: papasmurf

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.


55 posted on 08/13/2007 12:56:30 PM PDT by SHEENA26
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To: The Pack Knight

Wrong..Fred’s feet dragging, flip flopping and “testing the waters” is getting tiresome and lame. Not the sign of a leader.


56 posted on 08/13/2007 1:00:53 PM PDT by SHEENA26
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To: SHEENA26
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.

**************

That's all that matters. Her wedding dress.

57 posted on 08/13/2007 1:03:40 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: SHEENA26

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.


58 posted on 08/13/2007 1:27:06 PM PDT by Rutles4Ever (Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia, et ubi ecclesia vita eterna)
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To: The Pack Knight
“Fred is exactly right not to begin campaigning in earnest until September, when it really starts to count, and he is exactly right not to declare his candidacy until he is good and ready to campaign. Anyone who donated to a candidate who spent millions in Iowa getting ready for this straw poll ought to demand their money back.”

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.

59 posted on 08/13/2007 1:34:43 PM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God) .)
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To: The Pack Knight
“Fred is exactly right not to begin campaigning in earnest until September, when it really starts to count, and he is exactly right not to declare his candidacy until he is good and ready to campaign. Anyone who donated to a candidate who spent millions in Iowa getting ready for this straw poll ought to demand their money back.”

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.

60 posted on 08/13/2007 1:34:47 PM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God) .)
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