Where is My Donation Going? February Report

14. Feb, 2010 Categories: Economy by Aaron Emery 1 Comment

As of February 8, 2010, the campaign expenses are summarized below. I want to highlight that this is an independent grassroots campaign and not only am I the candidate, but I am also the treasurer, so apologies in advance for slow responses. I did promise campaign donation transparency and any donors with questions can leave them below or email TowneForCongress@gmail.com. Details on the spending are at the very bottom.

Why donate to Towne for Congress? Besides supporting spreading the message of liberty in a VERY cost-effective manner:

I do not and will not take donations from lobbyist PAC groups and corporate PAC groups like my career politician opponents. The reason for this is principle – how could the citizens of my district trust that I would not sell them out if the campaign receives money from lobbyists and corporations? There is no reliance on lobbyists and corporations to support the campaign; my allegiance is solely to the PEOPLE of the 15th District and to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.
100% of your contribution will be used expressly for the purpose of Towne For Congress. While this sounds obvious, I have discovered that in politics it is “normal” for politicians (and both of my opponents) to transfer money back and forth to LOTS of their “buddy-buddy” politician pals, and to fund their local Republican/Democratic county parties and PAC groups. While the FEC allows this, my principle is that people donate to my campaign because they are entrusting me to spend it as best as possible to win and support the mission statement.
100% of all contributions to-date have come from individuals.
We have very little overhead expenses, such as no expensive office to maintain.
There are no staff salaries to pay out since the campaign is 100% grassroot volunteers - who are self-motivated and superior to most political mercenaries, like those of the Republican and Democrat parties.
No irrelevant expenses like paying for haircuts, clothing, political consultants, advertising consultants, or expensive private investigators to “dig up dirt” on opponents rather than focusing on the issues.
Any size donation helps!! Independent campaigns, financially-speaking, obviously have a hard time competing with PAC-funded Republocrat races. Your donation of whatever amount is highly respected and appreciated by the campaign and is a great way to “vote with your pocketbook.” As of December 2009, well over 300 donors have contributed and, after removing a handful of those contributing over $500, the average donation is about $27.
I have personally contributed over $2,100 to my campaign, and plan to increase this total as more people donate. Often career politicians contribute nothing to their campaigns as they are already living on the taxpayer’s dollar as they campaign for “the next rung” on their career ladder. My opponents have yet to put a single dime into their own campaigns.
I have promised to only take the median household income and will donate the remainder to local non-profit hospitals, not enlist in the super-lucrative congressional pension plan, nor the elite congressional health care plan. I do not believe public servants should be enriching themselves when they have the power to tax the public for their pay. As a donor to the campaign, understand that when I mean I will serve as a temporary statesman instead of a career politician, I mean it by my actions, not just words.

As a reminder, the attractive “Who Is Jake Towne?” yard signs are available for displaying in your yard – see here. Even though we have a year before the election, it’s a great way to get people intrigued enough to learn more about the campaign, and details on the “Who Is Jake Towne?” advertising campaign are here.

The below is a summary – I must add it is not an official FEC report – the FEC September 30th quarterly can be accessed here. The year-end 2009 report is here. Through December 31st, our donor count is at 387, and the total raised was over $16,300. My notes are:

I donated a total of $2,121 to the campaign and fully funded the computer/projector expense below, which is a one-time expense, so overhead will decrease over time. Since November, overhead has shrunk from 30% to 21%, and I expect this to continue shrinking. The website and campaign phone are the only new expenses.
For credit card donations, I removed the transaction fees paid for their processing since the campaign is not able to use these funds. We have chosen a very cost-effective provider that also provides detailed campaign reports since we do not have a volunteer Treasurer. The most effective way to donate is by check via snail mail or delivered in person at campaign events. Donations from individuals are limited and subject to FEC regulations.
The one expense that I believe requires further justification is the Advertising Indirect for three books – The Law by Bastiat, What Has the Government Done to Our Money by Rothbard, and Economics in One Lesson by Hazlitt. These were purchased in bulk and are given away as thank you gifts for assistance and at the campaign’s discretion. While all 3 books are available on this site in PDF – and not everyone will take the time to read a book – they are so crucial to understanding what is occurring today that I strongly encourage any supporter or resident in my district to read them.
That said, I believe every single cent was used as best as possible. This is not to say that if I had it over again I would do things a bit differently, but based on my knowledge at the time. In particular, the flyer blitz has delivered just about 20,000 flyers to residences all over the district (details here). Several newspaper ads (example, s ee this half-page ad) were also well-spent even though it is early in the election year order to spread the word.
The campaign will be depending heavily on volunteers to keep costs for signature gathering for ballot access to a minimum – but it’s obviously super-critical to ensure ballot access. Some costs like copies, notarization, and filing fees are unavoidable. Signature gathering begins March 10th.

You can help by donating with the below button, or during the February 14-20 Money Bomb!!

Suggestions are very much welcome. I must say that while huge amounts of attention are given to the amount of donations raised by the media, what really matters are volunteers willing to spend their time spreading the message. Anyone can volunteer by emailing TowneForCongress@gmail.com, but do not be surprised if you are kept very busy.

February 14, 2010