Covering Up the Full Montee

Welcome back, concerned citizens! It looks like someone "has a case of the Montees" and we love it! This week is focused on the campaign for re-election of Susan Montee, Missouri’s money watcher or Missouri’s state auditor.

What exactly is an auditor? According to the Missouri state constitution an auditor, “shall establish appropriate systems of accounting for the political subdivisions of the state, supervise their budgeting systems, and audit their accounts as provided by law.” To sum this up, the state auditor makes sure everyone from county to state level is using money efficiently.

As with many of the other candidates we have focused during this campaign season, Susan Montee is majorly funded by law firms. So far this season Montee has received $138,296 from the Lawyers and Lobbyist industry.

This seems to be a trend across Democratic politics. Lawyers and law firms were the biggest source of contributions for both Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. Law officials and other related professionals are highly involved in the political process. Montee’s previous connections through her previous careers as both an attorney and a Certified Public Accountant have most likely helped fund her current aspiration of keeping her position of State Auditor.

According to her October campaign finance report which was filed on October 15, Montee has raised $815,205.72. The data on followthemoney.org, a political contributions site that focuses on state politics has not yet entered this updated data into their findings so please take this in account when looking at charts and graphs. When looking at the breakdown of individual donors versus institutional donors, Montee has received almost equal amounts. This means that not only are Missouri businesses supporting her re-election but so are Missouri citizens, since 92% of her contributions have come from in-state.

Come back on Wednesday when we look at some of Montee’s major contributors! To find out about the campaign funding for the “other side”, check out our classmate’s blog: Show Me the Money MO GOP 2010

Fun Friday F(v)ideos

Congratulations! You have found your way back to MO Funds, MO Votes for another Friday funday and like finding a wild beehive out in the woods, though it might seem daunting at first; we assure you that there is a sweet delectable center.

As we leave you to this glorious weekend (Homecoming at Truman State), we would like to discuss what to look for from Mr. Shoemyer in the weeks leading up to the election; in terms of what he will be advocating to the voters. As the Quincy-Herald Whig notes, “Jobs are the big issue in the district and the state.” As such, we can look to the Shoemyer campaign to be pushing the issues of job renovation, plus the expansion and creation of the job industry.

     Wes will also be pushing his grassroots image and service to this senate in the past. Over the summer, Wes exemplified his rural background by donating 1,200 ears of corn to the food pantries and nutrition centers scattered throughout the heartland of Missouri. In addition, his past service (particularly in the job sector) shows through in his being recognized by the Associated Industries of Missouri as a partner with the manufacturing and business sectors due to his “pro-business” history (a trait more commonly expected from Republicans).

    Look for these developments and more as Wes seeks re-election this fall with the help of his campaign contributors and supporters! Finally, before we leave you; we here at MO Funds, MO Votes believe that politics and fundraising has the potential for much more joy and fun then it is given credit for. If you will recall, last week we posted a story about the organization, American Crossroads GPS, well it seems that we aren’t the only ones that are hot on the trail of this controversial development. John Stewart and The Daily Show have compiled a whimsical summary of the events and the controversy surrounding their interactions. Though the humor isn’t suited for everyone, it most certainly is a great source of comedic relief for the weary!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
(C) Spot Run!
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

Don’t forget: MO Funds, MO Votes!

Have a great weekend,
Adam & Carrie

Sho(e) Me MO Dough

Hello and Aloha (to all our Hawaiian followers), welcome to this Wes Shoemeyer–stuffed Wednesday! On this wonderful hump-day, we shall be taking a deep look at the top 3 contributors to the Wes Shoemyer campaign. As we said in our last post, the campaign received two donations from two separate LLCs; this was found on Monday night but, later when we scoured the Missouri Ethics Commission  website, we found that the document had been changed to show that these contributions had been donated by the Missouri Democratic State Commission. We aren’t certain why this may have occurred, but fortunately we found a few more organizations that have given their support to the tune of $10,000.This blog post shall be observing two LLCs (Simmons, Browder, Gianaris, Angelides, & Barnerd LLC and Dollar, Burns & Becker, L.C.) and one Health Services Provider (Comprehensive Health Services).

SBGA&B LLC are based out-of-state in East Alton, Illinois; working and specializing in the “fight against mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases” (SBGA&B LLC).  This firm is a well-respected and organized group that has recently expanded their branch in recognition of their 10 years of work for the victims of these debilitating illnesses. Over the past 10 years, SBGA&B have helped families across the nation, including “obtaining a $250 million verdict on behalf of a U.S. steel worker – the single largest asbestos verdict in the United States”. This firm has been a reliable and consistent force in the cause of “mesothelioma and asbestos-related illnesses and has pledged over $15 million to cancer research”. This generosity shows through as they have put $10,000 to the Shoemyer campaign. It will be interesting to see if Wes aims to push any legislation through related to this firm’s causes.

Next, is Dollar, Burns, & Becker, a “Truck Accident” law firm with an established “reputation of representing injured trucking accident victims was achieved through persistent victim advocacy.” With their main office being based in Kansas City, MO, this local law firm believes that “advocacy and activism for injured people extends beyond the courtroom to support legislative reform and public officials who will fight for victim's rights.” They specialize in all kinds of vehicle accidents, but their forte resides with Truck Accident Law. They too gave the Shoemyer campaign a healthy $10,000 contribution for the upcoming 2010 Elections. Whether or not this will play a big impact on his issues and his future messages is yet unknown, but it is safe to say that Wes has been helped dramatically by these and many more law firms from around the state.

A third major contributor to the Shoemyer campaign is Comprehensive Health Systems. This is a psychiatric and substance abuse hospital and mental health clinic located in Hannibal Missouri. They typically donate to Democratic candidates, but are not exclusively liberal. CHS has given Wes Shoemyer $8,000 over the course of the past 2 years. This year so far CHS has contributed $5,000. CHS has also contributed to Democratic state representative Rebecca McClanahan.

Thanks for visiting us once again, tell all your friends to visit too! Check back on Friday night for a comedic look at Campaign funding as well as our final coverage of Wes Shoemyer!

Wes Shoemyer: Treading on Familiar Ground

Greetings readers!

Like Brett Favre on Monday Night Football, we keep comin’ back to bring you the most intriguing information about campaign funding and advocacy! For this week we shall be bringing you some knowledge about Wes Shoemyer, running for Senate from the 18th District of Missouri.

    For this Monday, we shall be viewing how this campaign year compares to 2006 (the last time Shoemyer was up for election). As we look through these two campaign cycles, we will analyze how the support and financing has changed over the years.

    In 2006, Wes was elected as representative of the 19th District and during that campaign he raised $458,253. Shoemyer was largely funded by Democratic Party Committees from several districts around the state. In addition to this, he saw much support from local Unions and Law Firms. Wes came through for the Democrats in this election due to his great campaigning which displayed him very well to the local voters as a social conservative, down-to-earth Missourian. However, he still needed help from many Democratic committees to win the election of 2006. This will be a very interesting aspect of the most recent 2010 election. In this election, if Wes can’t garner support from other donors, he might run into more trouble in this hotly contested spot.

Graph taken from followthemoney.org

So far during the 2010 campaign cycle Shoemyer has raised $285,076. Unlike in 2006 when most of his funding came from Democratic party committees, the majority of funding in 2010 has come from lawyers and lobbyists. Shoemyer is also heavily funded by health organizations and general labor unions.

Graph taken from followthemoney.org

Shoemyer has received most of his campaign contributions from instate in the Jefferson City and St. Louis areas but has also received 10% of his funding from out of state including money from Washington DC and Cincinnati, OH.

Shoemyer recently received a contribution of $29,991 from KDH Consulting LLC in Jefferson City, MO. On Wednesday, we will be taking a closer look at this contribution as well as contributions from Riddle Braden INC also of Jefferson City, MO.

Anti-Carnahan Attack Ads

Wow, one more week has come and gone once again. We hope you are ready for a ferocious Friday filled with funding from Carnahan’s foes!

Independent Expenditures are advertisements that either directly support or oppose the candidate but are not funded by the candidate. So there has been 205,997.43 spent in support of Carnahan but 1,152,857.02 spent in opposition. One major contributor to this opposition is American Crossroads.

American Crossroads, a PAC organized under the direction of Ed Gillespie (former RNC chairman) and Karl Rove (senior advisor to President George W. Bush). Although these two have been linked to the group they have never had official roles with the group or have ever been paid for the formation of the group. American Crossroads has also formed a partner group called Crossroads GPS under the IRS non-profit tax code 501(c)(4). Because Crossroads GPS has attained this title they do not have to disclose donors. Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center, two groups who are pushing the IRS to take action against Crossroads GPS, call Crossroads GSP “brainchild of leading Republican party political operatives and is operated by former Republican part operatives” (IRS DOCUMENT).

During this campaign season American Crossroads has raised 7.9 million dollars. Together these organizations (Crossroads & Crossroads GPS) have set a goal of raising over 50 million dollars. When Salon.com took a look at their FEC filings for the summer they found that 91% percent of the 2.6 million dollars American Crossroads raised in August came from 3 billionaires.

Missouri’s own, Robin Carnahan has been targeted by both Crossroads GPS, and American Crossroads. American Crossroads has spent 721,964.70 funding media buys advocating against Carnahan. Because Crossroads GPS is not technically supposed to be primarily engaged in influencing elections their total spending cannot be determined. But together these groups are investing 4.2 million dollars for media buys in 8 states (including Missouri) with closely contested Senate races. These large sums of money have recently put Crossroads GPS in the limelight.

Recently, this group has surged grabbed a lot of attention with their rambunctious attack ads slamming Robin Carnahan and her campaign to audacious ends. The ad lambasts Carnahan, asserting that her support of the Healthcare bill and “Washington” allegiance will continue to deprive Missourians of their tax dollars and their jobs. However, these attacks will not simply go through without repercussions; in fact, two main groups (Democracy 21 & Campaign Legal Center) have filed for the IRS to investigate Crossroads GPS for operating in violation of their tax status. These groups claim that due to the fact that this 501(c)(4), a label which permits them from being primarily engaged in activities to influence elections, has been operating with the main purpose being to raise funding and support to help Republican candidates gain election. If this were to be true, then many of the organizers would be revealed to the public, and then would switch to a different tax status that would be more suitable to a funding-focused PAC or 527.

Many are skeptical as to the outcome of this legal debacle, especially when looking to former leader of this IRS division, Marcus Owens, with his suspicion of the IRS even being made aware of the group’s very existence. The New York Times published a story on the 20^th of September, quoting Mr. Owens as having said, “These groups are popping up like mushrooms after a rain right now, and many of them will be out of business by late November…Technically, they would have until January 2012 at the earliest to file anything with the I.R.S. It’s a farce.” More concerning still is that a report issued by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration states, “While some of these filings may later be deemed acceptable, we determined the IRS is not reviewing these filings to determine if they are complete or if penalties should be assessed. Also, the IRS is not always issuing notices at the appropriate time that include all information needed by political organizations to become compliant. Lastly, the IRS is not following up on information it has requested from political organizations to verify compliance.” This is in regards to the Treasury’s analysis of the IRS’ efficiency and effectiveness in dealing with the 527 organizations being required to properly and fully disclose their financial information.

Although things may look bleak regarding this political organization, Robin Carnahan has been issuing her own advertisements in the hopes of pushing her campaign’s message and negating those that have been relentless in their attack ads. This wraps up our fantastic week on Robin Carnahan, we hoped you loved, laughed, and learned from these fun(d)-filled posts! We will return Monday night (10/11) as we begin our discussion of Wes Shoemeyer and his quest to attain the elusive title of State Senator!

Thank you for following this week and don’t forget: MO Funds, MO Votes!

The Cream of the Crop Contributors to the Carnahan Campaign

Welcome back followers! We appreciate you keepin' with us for the past two weeks, but don't think the best part is over. Like my delicious bowl of Lucky Charms, we still have a lot of sweet, marshmallowy goodness left to come! For today's little treat, we will detail a few areas of Robin Carnahan's Campaign, she has currently raised over 8 million dollars and has done it with the help of some major fundraising organizations, this blog take a look at her top two donors, EMILY's List and ActBlue.

A top contributor to the Democratic Candidate for Missouri Senator (Robin Carnahan) Campaign is a Political Action Committee known as, EMILY’s List. They are a “community of progressive Americans dedicated to electing pro-choice Democratic women to every level of office.” This PAC was founded by Ellen Malcolm and has been contributing to these sorts of campaigns ever since 1985 and they have raised a total of $81,396,534 to date and $22,473,409 this election cycle ($598,862 of which has been put toward Robin’s campaign). The name of “EMILY” is actually an acronym for, “Early Money Is Like Yeast”. This comes from a political phrase which reads: “Early money is like yeast, because it helps to raise the dough.” This committee definitely gets brownie points for creativity and ambition as they seek to not only raise funds to get these candidates elected but they also have other programs related to this such as their: Political Opportunity Program and WOMEN VOTE! These programs strive to garner support for women starting up their campaign and to mobilize women voters, in the hopes of breaking record numbers for Democrats on Election Day.

EMILY’S List has specifically chosen to support Ms. Carnahan, due to her outstanding history and as a result of her Pro-Choice support. While this may injure her reputation with some voters (as Missouri is traditionally a conservative state, both politically and socially), she may also stand to gain more support via this increased funding to push this competitive race forward as well as advocating her feminine supporters to go out and become more involved with her and the issues that Carnahan is fighting for.

A second major contributor to Carnahan’s campaign is ActBlue. ActBlue is a Political Action Committee that organizes Democratic funding for candidates all over the country. This PAC serves as a “clearing house” for Democratic funding, harnessing the convenience of online giving. Anyone can start a page to raise money or plan a fundraising event for any Democratic candidate. This differs from other Democratic fundraising organizations like Moveon.org and EMILY’s List in that it will support any Democratic candidate.

This open system creates a network of grassroots fundraising events that on their own may not raise much by themselves but together are a powerful force. Act Blue was started in 2004 and has since raised $156,677,266. During this election cycle Act Blue has raised over 40 million dollars for thousands for Democratic candidates.

Come back on Friday to see the how the opposition is funding against Robin Carnahan!

Monday Funday! How much fun(ding) can one Senate candidate have?

Ah, the start of a new week, nothing feels better.  Like a fresh batch of cookies, each bite is sweeter than the last. In order to match this feeling, we here at MO Funds, MO Votes have decided to jump right into covering Democratic candidates.  To start our series is Senate candidate, Robin Carnahan. 

In this 2010 election, Ms. Carnahan is running against the established Republican candidate, Roy Blunt. Both sides have been given a lot of attention from the media, as it is a hotly-contested seat and can have a very significant outcome on the balance of power in Washington. This has been great for these Senate-hopefuls, as they have been able to get their name, image, and campaign issues out for all Missouri voters to hear.

Chart taken from opensecrets.org

When looking at the amount of funding Carnahan has gathered, we can see that a majority of her donors include law firms (Bryan Cave LLP, Thompson Coburn LLP,  Husch Blackwell Sanders LLP). These “Limited Liability Partnerships” have been crucial to her campaign as they have helped her stay alive in a campaign where her opponent has been garnering lots of money and supporters in a state that has leaned predominantly Republican for quite some time. Large scale donors such as these law firms have contributed 63% of her funds, while small donations of $200 or less make up 20% of her total funds. In comparison, opponent Roy Blunt has only received 5% of his funding from these small donations. For a more complete list of donors check out Opensecrets.org. 

In addition to this, we took a gander at the amount of support from within the state of Missouri versus those outside, and surprisingly enough the results were more significant than we had previously thought. Republican Candidate, Roy Blunt, has received 48% ($2,583, 895) of his total campaign; whereas, Robin Carnahan has received approximately 39% ($1,513,089) of her campaign (as of July 2010). Based off of these figures, you can really begin to see the importance of this state race, not only has it been given a substantial amount of attention, but it has also seen many other individuals getting involved in this race and pushing their candidate.

Chart taken from opensecrets.org

DID YOU KNOW?
Robin Carnahan and President Barack Obama share the exact same birthday!

Come back Wednesday for a look at two of Robin Carnahan’s major donors Act Blue, and EMILY’s list.