Christine O'Donnell Had $1 Mil. Left in the Bank

[RandySF]

Delaware Republican Christine O’Donnell criticized the national GOP for not spending money on her campaign, but the long-shot Senate nominee was sitting on a mountain of cash.

O’Donnell reported having $924,800 in the bank after the election was over, according to her post-general election campaign fundraising report, filed Thursday.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/odonnell-had-1-mil-left-bank_520675.html

[spanone]

1. true to form, i'll bet she lives off it until her next scam

[malaise]

4. Ding ding

We have a winner :D

[SpiralHawk]

35. Yet another Typical Republicon GRIFTER

Ptoooey on Republicon Family Pharisee Values, a cesspool of faux morality.

[somone]

2. She won't have to worry about rent money for a while

[Major Hogwash]

11. Her 2012 campaign ad -- "I'm not a rich witch. Really, I'm not"

"I'm just like you, I've only got a mill left over from 2010."

[Botany]

3. Of course she does and that is what she will live on just like after ..

... the last couple of times she ran. No need for a job when when you can
live off of campaign cash.

[tanyev]

5. Mission. Accomplished.

[LynneSin]

6. She spent 6million on that campaign and lost in a landslide whereas Chris Coons...

spent just around 2 mil to take it home.

That's just how horrid of a candidate she was.

[Lasher]

8. Open Secrets says she spent $3,671,053

Leaving here with $1,360,328 cash on hand.

http://www.opensecrets.org/races/summary.php?id=DES2&cycle=2010

I wonder what restrictions there are on her spending of campaign contributions. Surely there must be some.

[WCGreen]

10. A whole mess of restrictions...

Especially if the IRS decides to take a look at her financial situation...

My guess is that she will ultimately be audited and hit with a big tax bill...

[Lasher]

17. OK thank you.

And I guess state restrictions would vary.

[CreekDog]

22. She's going to use the 1.3 million to have her staff file the FEC closeout papers

she'll be that staff.

pay, benefits, etc.

probably a couple weeks work there and a little overhead. :eyes:

[Ikonoklast]

29. And the 'staff' is hired in at $10,000.00 an hour.

Looks like about two weeks work, with some overtime.

[Davis_X_Machina]

7. There may have been no place left to spend it.

It happens in small state campaigns, happens here in Maine all the time. There's a finite amount of media in a small state, and once it's bought there is no more. You can't get three thirty second spots into a minute of local television.

Sure she's grifting, but there's more to it than that.

[LynneSin]

9. You shouldn't have to spend more than a million to win the state of Delaware

Which goes to show that even at 6million she can't fool us Delawareans

[gmoney]

12. Delawareans or Delawarites?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0718556/

[bluedigger]

15. I think most of Delaware is served by the Philly and MD TV markets.

Rates have to be a gazillion times higher than Maine - she wasn't trying.

edit to change "DC" to "MD" - same point.

[LynneSin]

18. that's true but there are packages where you run your adds just for Delaware customers

And seriously, I doubt any senate candidate before her spent more than a million to run for office in Delaware.

[bluedigger]

20. Really?

Senate is a big fucking deal, to misquote someone or other. Given that Delaware is the symbolic home of corporatocracy, I would expect it to be an expensive seat, regardless of the size of the state. I could definitely be wrong, though...I don't have any inside info.:shrug:

[LynneSin]

23. It's a pretty cheap state. But then again this was the first really 'competitive' race....

we've had in ages. If you can call a 17pt landslide competitive but here in Delaware it is. Remember that democrats far outnumber republicans when it comes to voter registration. And it's alot cheaper to do live visits across the states, which I think is more effective with campaigning then a TV ad. You can campaign down at the southern end of Delaware and still be home in time for dinner & family time at the north end.

[Davis_X_Machina]

34. Cable allows targeted ads..

...on otherwise national or market-wide programming.

[NoPasaran]

13. She's got tolls covered for the next decade, I guess

:hide:

[xxqqqzme]

14. That will pay her rent

and give her mom pocket change for awhile.

[AsahinaKimi]

16. There are probably some people glad to be

On her Christmas Wish List.

[LynneSin]

19. She'll do a Palin with that book deal she just inked

Palin bought like $500k worth of her book from her PAC fund. It's all legit laundering using campaign funds to buy books that you can give away to your fan base. That's how O'Donnell will launder her money into her own bank account.

[sensate2000]

21. Now she can afford to send her kids to Hogwarts.

[LynneSin]

24. What kids? She's my age and childless.

At at my age if you are childless pretty much going to be that way unless she plans to adopt

[Ikonoklast]

30. She can conjure some up.

Witches can do that.

[Skidmore]

25. Oh, yeah. The old runforofficebecomeamillionaire career path.

Exactly what is wrong with our election process. Any candidate with money in the bag after an election should be required to either return it to their supporters, donate it to a charity, or give it to the national party.

[hobbit709]

26. Mini-Grifterella

[KharmaTrain]

27. But There Are Still Bills To Pay

Most campaigns try to backload as many expenses as they can til after the election and then slowly pay things off. Some may recall the large debts Hillary Clinton racked up. O'Donnell was lucky. She only needed money to run for about two months from the end of the primary to the general (compared to 6 months or more for others) and with her "celebrity", she got a wadload of teabagger donations...thus I can see how she ended up with a surplus. But that's before all the bills are paid. What should be closely watched is who those bills come from and if money is filtered to her or her friends through invoices and other payments that come out of that fund.

[hobbit709]

28. I believe she has a history of not paying bills.

[LynneSin]

31. SHe never paid them off her last campaign, why should this be any different

seriously, she used leftover money from her 2008 campaign to pay for living expenses instead of retiring her campaign debts.

[KharmaTrain]

32. She's Been A Non-Stop Candidate...

Hi Lynn...always followed your "on the ground" reports on the O'Donnell front.

IRC, she can keep money in her campaign funds for several years...a base for a future run. And somehow I can see her running for the Congressional Seat in '12. The thing is in '08 she was a fringe figure that no one had any reason to scrutinize...but now she's in the "big leagues". Thus the reason I mention in my post above why I hope there's someone out there scrutinizing all of her present and future filings to see if there are funds going out the back door and into her purse. Sadly the FEC is an absolute joke so she'll get a $10k fine and probably pay for that out of her campaign kitty.

Cheers...

[LynneSin]

33. She'll run against Carper in 2012, not the house seat

Unless the GOP leaders in Delaware can find a way to keep her off the ticket, which they would love to do.

Yes you can keep the campaign funds for future races but in spring of 2009 she was not officially running for any office and yet she was billing her campaign for rent (the apartment where she lives), dinners, bowling trips, gasoline AND mileage (which is a double hit because you can either claim the gasoline you buy or the mileage but not both).

I hope she keeps running because she really is still a fringe candidate. Rumor has it she wants to sue the DEGOP for not supporting her campaign but honestly, thanks to Christine on the ticket the DEGOP was struggling to try and win one of the other statewide races and barely eeked out one win (Incumbant Auditor barely beat his democratic opponent). Republicans ended up losing state races and the Treasurer seat.

Personally I hope she keeps running because she will never be accepted by Delawareans, especially in the populated northern parts of the state.