This is the last say on the Clinton Campaign spending. The New York Times has it aptly broken down and not a pretty picture. teacherken and RobertinWisconsin gave analysis on the Politico pieces, yesterday, now the New York Times looks at it.
First off, both of these campaigns raised an enormous amount of money, with Clinton shifting over 10M from her senate treasure chest. But the spending is outrageous and frankly, WASTEFUL. And yes, I am for campaign finance reform, we all should be after this.
Nearly $100,000 went for party platters and groceries before the Iowa caucuses, even though the partying mood evaporated quickly.
It spent more than $95,384 on Jan. 1 at Hy-Vee Inc., a local grocery chain in West Des Moines, Iowa, in addition to buying loads of snow shovels to clear the walks for caucusgoers. Mrs. Clinton came in third in the Jan. 3 caucus. It did not snow.
I was in Iowa for the week up to the Iowa Caucus and all the campaigns were told, for Linn County where I was at (Cedar Rapids) no food allowed. But it showed up anyway. And the shovels? Total waste of money. One thing for sure, Iowans where I was at don't shovel their paths to the front door or sidewalks. They only shovel their driveways and many went in the house through their back doors. Again, total waste.
Mr. Obama’s fund-raising surged after his Iowa victory. In January, he brought in more than $2.50 for every $1 she was given, and from Jan. 5 to Feb. 5, Mr. Obama spent nearly $16 million on political advertisements — more than $4 million more than Mrs. Clinton, according to a survey by the Campaign Media Analysis Group at TNS Media Intelligence.
This number is extremely important. He raised almost 2-to-1 on the individual dollar in January. The 36M he raised in January alone is a very telling sign. This dollar amount allowed him to put up television/radio ads in all the 22 early states. For many who follow the money, the first forecast should have been this, she did not advertise in all 22 states, only 12. Many around here was asking questions about that decision, but the reality, again she did not have the money to spread the ads around. Another sign, as DHinMI noted on the FP yesterday:
He fought her to a draw on February 5th, he demonstrated tremendous strength across the country, and forced her to muster her resources in the NY/CT/NJ region, in Massachusetts and in California. Even in the big states where she fought and won, her victories were mostly just "holds" of her established advantage. They were defensive wins, allowing Obama to mount significant wins in other states all over the country.
While many said she won the big states, these really were no new states. And for those stating that Obama won't win California, New Jersey, New York, Massachusettes since he did not win it this time around, are crazy. These are solid blue states, any Democrat will win these states during the General Election. Obama spent his money to make her hold onto these states, while spending money in all the 22 states, visiting these states and ran the numbers up on her by blunting the big state delegate number, thus a draw on February 5th.
Rooms at the Bellagio luxury hotel in Las Vegas consumed more than $25,000; the Four Seasons, another $5,000. And top consultants collected about $5 million in January, a month of crucial expenses and tough fund-raising.
And 25K in Vegas? 5K for the Four Seasons? Sorry, that is outrageous spending. Who went with her to Vegas? Everybody?
And we won't even go into her consultant fees which clipped 1/3 of her total money raised. Of course, what did they do? Many now will say nothing, because they surely don't have anything to show for it.
Lastly, remember South Carolina?
In other notable expenditures during the lean month of January, Mrs. Clinton paid $275,000 to Sunrise Communications, a South Carolina firm that was supposed to turn out black voters for her and collected nearly $800,000 in total.
After all the crap the Clintons unloaded in South Carolina, they could have surely saved money spent for getting the African-American vote out. In fact, they could have consulted over here at Daily Kos, because anyone could have told them not to write that check. For real.
Here is the graphic breakdown. And thanks to AdamB here is the total breakdown of money spent.