Posted on 10/20/2010 10:27:26 AM PDT by ironwill
Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes' second-biggest campaign expense is . . . Dan Maes and his family.
The Evergreen businessman, who sold his credit-reporting company last year and has been running for office full time since March 2009, has been reimbursed $71,658 from his campaign. His daughter Jordan, his executive aide, has been paid $14,101 for work and some expenses, according to a Denver Post analysis.
The total is nearly 30 percent of the $304,000 Maes has raised. His top expense is advertising, which totals $113,338.
The amount of Dan Maes' expenses, which include mileage, travel, phone, food and drinks for fundraisers, "misc expenses," subscriptions, parking and trips to Wal-Mart, may be unprecedented, said the Colorado secretary of state's office.
Additionally, some of the expenses were months out of date when reimbursement was requested. For instance, on his May 2010 report, he listed a reimbursement for $3,400 spent on Feb. 19, 2010. The money was for: $495 for a facility rental eight months earlier, in June 2009; $88.45 for thank-you cards; 2009 mileage with no miles listed; $158 for signs from 2009; and $325.60 in postage.
Maes said the campaign doesn't have a credit card because it's a "cash and carry" operation. Although he said he could not comment on specific reimbursements, he said generally most of the money was for mileage.
"Every once in a while we might have left a wallet home and had to use a personal check or cash," Maes said.
Maes paid a record $17,500 fine in August for campaign-finance violations, which included improperly recording mileage costs.
In September, Maes was reimbursed $6,879 for mileage incurred by himself, his wife and his daughter.
Maes raised $22,000 from Sept. 30 to Oct. 13, bringing his total to $304,000. His second-largest campaign expense is advertising ($83,919) followed by consulting fees ($42,903), which include $10,000 in legal fees stemming from the campaign-finance violations. He has also spent $4,070 on food, $3,903 on travel and $15,396 on "unknown" and "miscellaneous" expenses.
American Constitution Party candidate Tom Tancredo raked in $220,000 during that same period, bringing his total to $682,000. He has reimbursed himself $3,822 for advertising, office equipment and travel. His top expenses overall: $440,849 on advertising, $79,656 on fundraising and $32,349 on consultants.
Democrat John Hickenlooper raised $387,000 from Sept. 30 to Oct. 13, bringing his total for the campaign to $3.7 million. He has not been reimbursed by his campaign for any expenses. His top three expense categories are $1.7 million in advertising, $843,959 for consultants and employees, and $419,825 in fundraising costs.
Let’s hope Maes ducks out and makes sure Tancredo gets his votes.
The unfortunate thing is that this crap surfaced after it was too late for the GOP to get Maes’ name off the ballot. As a result, there’s a good chance that the 2010 Colorado ballot will have the Democratic Party and the Constitution Party in the two top slots, and the Republican Party mixed in somewhere down below with the Libertarian Party and the Green Party and the Socialist Workers’ Party and the Rent Is Too Damn High Party and the rest.
“2010” —> should read “2012”
Maes keeps saying he will stay in the race. The Republican party will be a minor party if he gets less than 10% vote, which is very likely.
Wasn’t Maes the Colorado Tea Party favorite?
Going into the future, the various TP entities need to do a much better job of vetting, prior to handing out endorsements.
Resources and methods do exist.
Just sent an e-mail to Maes urging him to drop out of the race.
this race makes me want to frickin cry
it was a prime GOP pickup until this Tea Party nitwit won the nomination. Now we will not get the maximum return from this year’s “wave” election. The Tea Party endorsements had better go to better candidates in the future not just people who are “outsiders”. sometimes there is a reason these guys are left outside
I was listening to the fill in for Peter Boyles this morning. He was saying the guy that tried to get Tancredo off the ballot went to the Tancredo campaign trying to make a deal on Maes belalf. Something about Lt. Gov. if he got out. Tancredo’s people told him that was illegal to make a deal like that. Now this same person (Harrington?) is saying that CO would be better off if Hickenlooper wins. Maes is truly one despicable politician even for politician standards. He should be run out of town with a shitty mop if Tancredo loses.
That's not cheating. Otherwise only the very rich would be able to run for office.
That's not cheating. Otherwise only the very rich would be able to run for office.
I heard the same show this morning. How people can defend Maes is beyond me. You’re right, though, they’d rather have ‘their’ party nominee win, no matter how bad he is, than vote for the good of the State.
Here’s some info about it:
Dan Maes rejects drop-out idea
http://www.thedenverdailynews.com/article.php?aID=10403
That's a Mike Rosen line and even he is voting for Tancredo. Reading a Tancredo thread earlier this morning and someone on FR said they are voting for Hickenlooper. They were dead serious.
Don’t Maes me bro!
Is he??? He was still in Maes camp about a month ago, wasn't he??
I don't get to hear his show very often so glad he made the switch. Does he push for Tom on his show??
The GOP primary was between this guy and the Plagarist. If Chairman Wadhams hadn't tried to clear the field for McPlagarism, maybe there would have been a credible GOP nominee this year.
I was disappointed when Penry got out of the race. I think Wadhams fingerprints were all over his back to push him out.
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