I’m so disgusted by the numbers in this report that I won’t say anymore. Let’s just get into it.
The latest Montana Democratic Party fundraising/expense report is 202 pages long.
As usual, you can find these reports on the FEC website.
The Party had $202,000 cash on hand at the beginning of November, they raised $91,000 over the month, and had $209,000 as December began.
A total of $102,000 was spent by the Montana Democratic Party in November.
That means the Dems effectively raised $7,000, after expenses.
That fundraising encompasses 127 pages of the finance report. As usual, I don’t get into who’s giving money to the Dems.
It takes a lot of work going through these reports, and if I had to go through those 127 pages – perhaps looking at where donors live and what their jobs are – it’d take a lot more work.
I wish the Montana media would do this…but they choose not to. I guess articles like that wouldn’t get enough ‘clicks,’ and therefore revenue. In other words, it’s not important.
Anyways…the expenses for the Montana Dems are what we call Schedule B (FEC Form 3X) Itemized Disbursements.
This is what stood out to me:
- Nearly $3,000 was spent to access the Democratic National Committee’s voter file. I know the DNC is cash-strapped…but is charging state Parties the answer? Why not just let them use this? Points to poor leadership, if you ask me.
- $1,600 was spent renting the Exploration Works site in Helena.
- $1,200 was given to California’s Gordon & Schwenkmeyer for fundraising consultations.
- $10,500 was given to the District of Criminals’ New Blue Interactive, LLC for “donor development.”
- $1,300 was given to AAA Storage in Helena for “rent.” You’re telling me the Party’s got so much shit they can’t fit it all into that fancy HQ building they’ve got on Sixth Street? Gee-whiz!
- $74 was spent taking an Uber in San Francisco.
- $289 was spent with Airbnb for lodging in San Francisco.
- $3,500 was given to Missoula’s Campaign Compliance for accounting work…work that surely could have been done in-house, by a salaried employee…if we only had the right employees on staff, not the wrong ones. ($3,500 a month comes out to $42,000 a year).
- $375 was spent renting a car in Kansas City.
- $660 was spent on website services with Texas’ Lexis Nexis.
- $358 was spent on a flight to Las Vegas.
- $149 was spent flying to Seattle.
- $167 was spent flying to Atlanta.
- $495 was spent getting to and then staying in Norwalk, Connecticut.
- $412 was spent on a “gift” from Helena’s Queen City Framing.
- $324 was spent staying at a Big Sky resort.
- $130 was spent traveling in Southlake, Texas.
- $357 was spent traveling to LA.
- Over $34,000 was spent paying 10 employees, with Nancy Keenan taking the lion’s share…$5,900 a month.
- $49,600 was spent on payroll taxes for those employees.
- $7,000 was spent on health insurance for those employees.
- $3,400 was spent feeding those employees.
- $2,700 was spent travelling those employees around.
The rest of the $5,000 in spending mainly encompasses printing, postage, office supplies, mileage reimbursements, cell phone stipends, credit card fees, software licenses, and similar items.
One of the things that you realize when you spend a few months going through these reports is that, yes, it is indeed a scheme.
Take that $12,000 spent on donor development. The Montana Democratic Party desperately needs to raise more money…so they can keep paying and feeding themselves.
Don’t believe me?
Take a look at this spending graph:
Those 5 items come out to $97,000…or $5,000 less than the Party raised for the month.
Employee salaries, meals, travel, payroll taxes and health insurance.
It’s not about you…it’s about those 10 employees and keeping them happy.
The Party ate out 38 times in November, with an average cost of $91 an outing. There were some mega-bashes as well – November 8 saw $1,300 spent at CostCo and the next day $645 was spent at Chili O’Brien’s.
Someone’s riding high on the hog…it’s just not average Democratic voters, or Democratic legislative candidates.
And nothing will change. Despite my giving you this information month after month, the Montana media won’t report on it, and therefore the Montana Democratic Party knows it will never be an issue.
It’s not so much poor leadership that’s driving these numbers, it’s a lack of leadership.
If the buck stops anywhere, it’d have to be with Nancy Keenan, the executive director of the Party.
If she’s not really the person in charge, then we’d have to look to either Bullock or Tester. My money’s on Tester, as he’s been around longer. He is effectively the leader of the Party, and therefore you have to chalk this mess up to him.
Lack of leadership.
Here’s wishing the MT Dems a Merry Christmas, and a very lucrative New Year: