Senator Jon Tester has a lot of loves.
But none of those things compare to his love for the money needed to make it all happen.
To help bring that money in, Tester has a couple darlings.
One is the Treasure State PAC and the other is Montanans for Tester.
Let’s follow the money.
- Travel is up there.
- Food is a big one.
- Printing is pretty special too.
But none of those things compare to his love for the money needed to make it all happen.
To help bring that money in, Tester has a couple darlings.
One is the Treasure State PAC and the other is Montanans for Tester.
Let’s follow the money.
Treasure State PAC
The Treasure State PAC’s June FEC report is just 13 pages long.
The PAC is based in Missoula and at the beginning of May they had $40,000 cash on hand.
They brought in $16,500 for the month, spent nearly $10,000, and had just about $47,000 cash on hand at the beginning of June.
So who gives this PAC money?
Here’s how they spent their money in May:
Alexa Feldman is currently the National Finance Director for Montanans for Tester, and has been since January.
She’s from Newtown, Connecticut, and has a BA in political communication from George Washington University.
She was a finance director for Kendrick Meek’s 2010 U.S. House campaign in Florida. Meek lost that year after serving since 2003.
After that Feldman was a fundraiser at Flanagan Fulkeerson & Company from 2011 to 2013.
After that she got hired by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and that’s likely where Tester discovered her, and got her aboard his political machine.
The PAC is based in Missoula and at the beginning of May they had $40,000 cash on hand.
They brought in $16,500 for the month, spent nearly $10,000, and had just about $47,000 cash on hand at the beginning of June.
So who gives this PAC money?
- $5,000 from the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribe
- $5,000 from the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists
- $1,500 from Farmer’s Group insurance
- $5,000 from Pfizer
Here’s how they spent their money in May:
- $1,067 to Missoula’s Campaign Compliance for accounting
- $4,000 to D.C.’s Chraca Friedman Group for PAC fundraising consultations
- $400 to the Flathead County Democratic Committee for catering/meals
- $600 in contributions to the Yellowstone County Democratic Central Committee
- $2,740 to Virginia’s Paychex for payroll taxes
- $2,581 to Alexa Feldman of D.C. for salary
Alexa Feldman is currently the National Finance Director for Montanans for Tester, and has been since January.
She’s from Newtown, Connecticut, and has a BA in political communication from George Washington University.
She was a finance director for Kendrick Meek’s 2010 U.S. House campaign in Florida. Meek lost that year after serving since 2003.
After that Feldman was a fundraiser at Flanagan Fulkeerson & Company from 2011 to 2013.
After that she got hired by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and that’s likely where Tester discovered her, and got her aboard his political machine.
Montanans for Tester
The latest report we have for Montanans for Tester is the April Quarterly FEC report.
It’s 1,011 pages long.
The PDF file is nearly 40 megabytes.
It’s a terribly scanned copy of a physical report, and it comes in slightly sideways when you view it.
This also means you can’t use the Ctrl-F keyboard feature to search out names or anything else.
All of this is meant to dissuade prying eyes from following the money.
It’s what people do when they don’t want you to know what they’re doing.
Jon Tester doesn’t want us to know what he’s doing.
For the first quarter of 2017, Tester’s PAC had $1.95 million in total contributions, $378,000 in expenditures, and $3.1 million cash on hand at the beginning of April.
920 pages of the report consist of Schedule A individual contributions.
The last 175 pages deal with spending.
Here are some things that stood out to me:
Notice the similarities?
And that’s about it.
Most of the rest of it is room rentals, travel on airplanes, printing, some train travel, and a shit ton of food expenses.
Hey, we know the guy likes to eat.
It’s 1,011 pages long.
The PDF file is nearly 40 megabytes.
It’s a terribly scanned copy of a physical report, and it comes in slightly sideways when you view it.
This also means you can’t use the Ctrl-F keyboard feature to search out names or anything else.
All of this is meant to dissuade prying eyes from following the money.
It’s what people do when they don’t want you to know what they’re doing.
Jon Tester doesn’t want us to know what he’s doing.
For the first quarter of 2017, Tester’s PAC had $1.95 million in total contributions, $378,000 in expenditures, and $3.1 million cash on hand at the beginning of April.
920 pages of the report consist of Schedule A individual contributions.
The last 175 pages deal with spending.
Here are some things that stood out to me:
- $2,500 to Chicago’s Blue State Digital for online consulting
- $10,000 to Missoula’s Campaign Compliance for accounting
- $24,000 to D.C.’s Chraca Friedman Group for fundraising consultations
- $955 to reimburse Colleen Martin for something, as well as another $339 for mileage she drove
- $6,093 in salary for Alexa Feldman in January
- $9,256 in salary for Billings’ Christine Roberts in February
- $1,941 in salary for D.C.’s Molly Mayer in February
- $969 in salary for Maryland’s Victoria Scordato in February
Notice the similarities?
And that’s about it.
Most of the rest of it is room rentals, travel on airplanes, printing, some train travel, and a shit ton of food expenses.
Hey, we know the guy likes to eat.
