The Best Politicians Money Can Buy?

I didn’t have to file because I haven’t loaned myself $50K to buy my way into Congress. I’ve raised just under $5000- the filing limit- and produced 5 videos, a website, bumper stickers, buttons, and postcards/handouts. I’ve done a limited mailing. I’ve gone door-to-door, stood outside the Schuster Center and passed out cards to people coming and going to Spike Lee- and worked on the Obama campaign.

My opponent, Jane Mitakides on the other hand:

1 MAR 08 NOTE: Apparently the FEC database won’t allow you to keep a link to a candidate filing life (bad web design)- so all my links don’t work to Jane’s filing.

I’ve found the PDF of her filing and have it here: PDF of Jane Mitakides Feb 08 FEC filing ^[1]

Congressional candidate report contributions ^[2]
Of the three Democrats running in the March 4 primary, only Jane Mitakides of Washington Twp. filed a report with the Federal Election Commission. ^[3] She lent herself $50,000 ^[4] for the race and collected an additional $35,909 between Jan. 1, 2008 and Feb. 13 ^[5], the period covered by federal election campaign finance filing rules. Mitakides spent $10,619 and has nearly $75,290 on hand.

Businessman David Esrati and former Waynesville Mayor Charles Sanders, both Democrats, did not file reports by press time.

U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, is unopposed in the Republican primary. He raised $16,378 and spent $47,586. With previous contributions included Turner has $483,848 on hand.

Mrs. Mitakides hired herself a staffer with a cell phone from some other area code, hired a polling firm from DC who did work for the Clinton’s (to tell her if the district was winnable), and paid some web firm from out of town to build her a lame-o website (even though they are using Drupal- but ignoring many of its best features) .

So, without actually saying anything- other than “I can write checks to my own campaign” and do what special interest groups want- she’s raised a ton of money- and not promised to do anything for the people she’s supposed to represent.

Some donations ^[5] of interest:

$5000 from the U.A. Political Education Fund ^[6] 901 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE, NW WASHINGTON, DC 20001

Family members:

Her smallest donation: $250, largest $2,300 from several people.

Compare that to my campaign where I have $5 donations and $25 donations from Wal-Mart clerks and one donor who has contributed $750 as part of a match (thank you Pam) and no other donation of more than $250.

Jane spent her donors money on:

No mention of expenses for the polling she talked about at the DDN editorial board meeting- or mention of payment for the staffer?

What we have here is the difference between an Obama campaign, funded by many disenfranchised voters- vs. a Hillary campaign, funded by the country club and cocktail set.

It will be up to the voters on March 4- on what kind of representation they want.

Realize, that after the primary- raising money becomes much easier for me if I’m the elected candidate. Up until then- I’m still a bad bet because Jane can keep writing checks- and I’m prohibited by law from doing the same ^[7] (my business does work for the Federal Government and is a sole-proprietorship, making it illegal to give money to my own campaign).

You don’t even want to look at Mike Turner’s donations. ^[8] Talk about an even higher average donation amount. You’ll quickly understand why this could either turn into a big money slugfest of Jane vs Mike.

Or a David with a slingshot vs Goliath Mike.

Just remember who the winner was with the slingshot.