Continuing to look at campaign disclosures, I found a couple of good things and a couple of not so good things when looking at Karen Handel’s.
Ms. Handel reported bringing in $431,179 overall, and had the highest total ‘working man’ unitemized contributions, at $29,313. Of the remaining $402,026 in itemized contributions, only $24,600 of that was for any election other than the Primary (specifically, that entire number was for the General Election), and even better than that, only $2,250 was from out of state. Meaning that Ms. Handel actually accepted less out of state itemized contributions than the campaign billing itself as ‘Georgia First’!
Getting into some of the slightly more troubling news, $11,575 was from lobbyists and PACs, while only $4,200 was from elected officials/campaigns – and it should be noted here that the campaigns that donated to Ms. Handel were strictly at the City and County levels. Not a single campaign for a General Assembly position or higher donated more than $101 to Ms. Handel, though it is certainly possible that a few gave her under that amount and therefore did not have to be itemized. PeachPundit.com commenter Doug Deal is listed as giving Handel $250 – not disturbing really, just something I wanted to note here, just for transparency purposes.
But the most disturbing part of this report, at least for this South Georgia boy? 48% of Handel’s total itemized contributions, $196,035, came from within the City of Atlanta itself, and if the Atlanta Metro area is considered, that number bumps up to $346,810 – or 86%.
I have heard that it is possible to at least win the GOP nomination with nothing more than extremely strong support in the North Fulton County area and something like 10% of the vote in the entire rest of the State, and if that is accurate, based on these numbers it appears that testing that theory will be absolutely imperative for Ms. Handel’s campaign, unless she can figure out how to draw more support from throughout the State.
You’ve raised questions about the large percentage of contributions for Karen Handle and Eric Johnson coming from their home areas. Early (some might say ridiculously early) in a campaign, most candidates turn to the home folks who know them best for cash. BTW, PACs are not inherently evil. Nor are contributions from business owners and their family.
While not necessarily vital that support come from outside of a candidates home region in the early stages of a campaign, it’s worth looking at since it shows a lack of support from other regions of the state, something that raw totals won’t do. It doesn’t necessarily indicate the campaign is in trouble for most candidates, but it bears watching as the campaigns progress.
In addition, there’s the fact that Karen Handel is supposed to be one of the more viable candidates, and a current statewide office holder, and she has gotten most of her money from the Atlanta area. Frankly, that may make a few people ask questions. Now, again this doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but it’s something worth watching as time progresses.
CC,
Right now I’m going in and looking for readily identifiable groups on EVERYONE. Many of these campaigns are trying to use their totals as validation of their statewide candidacy, when in fact most of their contributions come from a single geographic area. Granted, if that geographic area is North Atlanta and there is a lot of support already, that person could be the GOP nominee for Governor – or any other state wide office – with little regard for what the rest of the state wants, at least from what I have been told.
While PACs are not inherently evil, I DO have a problem with lobbyists donating to campaigns. People tend to give deference to whoever signs their paychecks, and for politicians taking a lot of money from PACs, that gives those unelected PACs more power than the people those politicians are supposed to serve, and that, IMHO, is WRONG.
Also, take the case of JC Newman and Integrated Power Solutions for example. He, his wife, and IPC have each donated the maximum to a couple of candidates – in every phase of the process. Because JC Newman is the chairman/CEO of IPC and his wife’s husband, it is reasonable to expect that he holds a great deal of sway with each of them, meaning that effectively, JC Newman has donated ALL of that money, and not just the money that has his name on it. The same holds true of Donald Leebern Jr, whose apparent wife, son, and daughter in law have made similar donations as those connected directly to JC Newman. Again, this, to me, violates the spirit of the law, even while being perfectly legal by the letter of the law.
So I classify those situations as ‘stinking’, and to me, they truly do. You are, obviously, completely free to feel the exact opposite.