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
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| |
| 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.
The election process is so broken, my opinion is that ANY publicity is good publicity. The Democrats sound like idiots, but everyone knows who’s running. The electorate couldn’t tell Fred Thompson from Fred Flintstone at this point, and with the collective political IQ of this country plummeting with every passing November, playing it safe is not going to cut it, IMHO.
Strongly disagree.
“”The election process is so broken, my opinion is that ANY publicity is good publicity. The Democrats sound like idiots, but everyone knows who’s running. “
Not ALL publicity is good ... as in the situation of the Demoncrats the more they talk they sillier they sound as well as highlight their ability to lie without a conscience. Hardly anyone bothered to watch the Demoncrats on their latest debat on T.V. or the debate for the homos.
“The electorate couldn’t tell Fred Thompson from Fred Flintstone at this point, and with the collective political IQ of this country plummeting with every passing November, playing it safe is not going to cut it, IMHO.”
For some that is true but for his base that is false. I don’t see Fred taking the approach that others are taking. Electorate fatigue is alive and well ... normal people; not political junkies are NOT interested in this stuff till it gets closer to the election - what’s going on here is like advertising Christmas gifts at Easter time - people aren’t into it yet. Those doing this are wasting their time and money ... later folks will IGNORE them because they blew their wad and interested in someone they may no know so much about such as Fred.
To know Fred is to love Fred! I'll be doing some volunteer work for him.
Meow.
She’s one of the mittwits.
Old complaints.
Eat your heart out.
W
And what have you got against Dungeness Crabs??
You were expecting Rosie O'?
I never had Dungeness. Thanks for the tip. I’ll have to try them.
jonesie ... you'll have to add this one to your list.
Flowers I mean...
It’s interesting to me that a sizable segment of Romney supporters seem to have looks as a top priority. Among this group, criticism of Fred’s and Jeri’s looks tends to be the most frequent complaint about Thompson’s candidacy, and gushing about Mitt’s and his wife’s looks tends to be one of the top reasons they cite for supporting Romney.
I don’t see this so much from supporters of any other candidate — it seems to be a peculiarity of some (not all) Mitt backers. It does not reflect well on Romney’s candidacy that a noticeable segment of his supporters chose him because of the way he and his wife look.
Therefore it does not take a great leap to assume that many of these “supporters” are up past bedtime on mommy and daddy’s PC. I am sure they get a big kick out of “playing with the adults” in homeroom the next morning.
Well now, I’m sure she was posing for a First Lady picture, running to be first lady that long ago.
My father in law used to tell me, if you can’t say something nice say nothing at all. Especially when you’re talking about another person’s hairstyle or appearance. What goes around comes around.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1948204/posts
Most Presidential Bundlers Work in Law, Finance, Real Estate
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