(Edited & Updated, 10 Feb 2012)
I was at Caucus Tuesday night, standing by candidate’s tables. A guy asked me why I was wearing a Barnes sticker. While explaining, a Sund staffer walked over to get into the conversation. She stated that the DCCC says Sund is the most electable of the two. I responded that since neither candidate is hitting the fundraising numbers the DCCC wants for it to get involved (think: $200k), I highly doubt the D-Trip figured either was really electable – at this time. Sad, but true – as winnable as the Third is, the D-Trip wanted to see $200k in the 4th quarter. The staffer pivoted and proceeded to rip into Barnes’ numbers.
Which struck me as rather odd; I’d heard the opposite of what I was hearing from Sund’s staffer last night. But, hey – I’m not one to write about DFL stuff, unless the stuff I hear is really rather unbelievable – like the time Tinklenberg claimed in a debate he wasn’t a lobbyist.
And then I heard the same staffer say the same kind of stuff while doing surrogate stump speeches in the Precinct Caucus room! That Sund was the most electable (among other reasons) because of fundraising ability!
So, I am going to write about this – right now.
Now, those that are following the ol’ TwoPutter’s “Continuing Cooked Books Series” know the ol’ TwoPutter knows his way around FEC Reports.
So, let’s look at the FEC Reports, for Barnes and Sund!
As I read the FEC Reports for DFL non-incumbents, Tarryl Clark blew the field away, by taking in $161,084.96 in the 4th quarter, 2011.
Next on the big numbers report was another contestant in CD-08, Rick Nolan with $60,013.14 for the quarter.
Now, Rick is a former Member of Congress, and even though he hasn’t been in D.C. for a while, he’s still able to tap into some of the folk still there – like a cool $5k from the UA Political Education Committee out of Annapolis, Maryland. So Rick reported $60k.
Best I can tell, Barnes came in third, with $53,318.61 for the 4th quarter.
What did Sund pull for the quarter? $16,490.00.
Yes, $16,490.00. In fact, Sund reported, year-to-date, $25,258.34 – or, less than half of what Barnes reported in the 4th quarter – his ONLY quarter (so far).
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Edit/Update, 10 Feb 2012 – Team Sund actually has raised $41,748 year to date; see below.
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Now, some folk might (like Sund’s staffer did) poopooh Barnes’ number, ’cause Barnes donated $15k to his campaign. But, here’s the deal – that’s Skin In The Game. It’s CASH. It’s NOT on Line 10 – “Debts and Obligations Owed BY the Committee” – it’s on Line 6 (a) – Net Contributions (other than loans).
And to Donors looking to donate, having skin in the game means something. Like, a LOT.
Of Sund’s donations, looking at her Schedule A (Itemized Receipts) is worth looking at also, because not all of it was cash. Here’s her in-kind donations:
$2,400 – Website Creation & Maintenance
$2,350 – Video Shooting and Editing
$600 – Hair, Makeup, Wardrobe
$580 – Speech Presentation
$500 – Speech Presentation
So, out of her 4th quarter $16,490 reported income $6,380 was in-kind meaning she only pulled $10k cash.
But her staffer was out there making the rounds bragging that her strength was fundraising??!?
And it’s not just cash raised during the quarter; it’s Cash On Hand at the end that’s important, too. At the end of the 4th quarter, Sund reported $14,599.47 in the bank. Barnes reported $28,462.14.
To recap:
I personally heard claims about DCCC support that simply aren’t credible.
I personally heard financial BS before Caucus started and I heard it in the Precinct Room. As the staffer was making the rounds, I’m sure other precincts heard it, too.
Now, Sharon Sund is a fine person with a compelling story.
But ultimately, the candidate is responsible for what their paid staffers say and do.
And sending out a paid staffer to spin what the D-Trip says and what documented reports with the FEC show at Precinct Caucuses is on her.
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Update, 10 Feb 2012! Here’s the screenshot of where I got the $25,258.34 total, year-to-date number for the Sund campaign:
That image is from this FEC Report. And the casual observer will note the highlighted number, $25,258.34 is in the “Column B, Election Cycle-To-Date.”
Well, the ol’ TwoPutter was notified by the Sund Campaign that the Year To Date total was incorrect; the $25k number hadn’t been updated by the FEC to report the correct total, year-to-date of $41,748. That $25k in the Y-T-D column was really their 3rd quarter total, and it needed to be added to the $16k in the 4th Qtr column for a correct total of $41k Y-T-D. Team Sund directed me to the following FEC Summary report to verify:
That image is from this FEC Summary Report.
I regret the error; in fact the Sund Campaign raised more than I originally posted.
But, this raises another question: Why would a campaign be talking up fundraising prowess, when the 4th quarter totals were worse than the 3rd?
And here’s an insider baseball kinda question: if you were a staffer, would you point out the above error that shows your fundraising was trending down, and not up?
Part of the problem we have in winning elections is candidates who don’t tell the truth and are all about self-promotion. Dishonesty among DFLers is even more onerous than among Republicans because we are supposed to be above that. No candidate should get a pass simply because of the letters behind his or her name. Good for you for holding one of our own accountable!
Skin in the game or not, Barnes’ $53k isn’t even a down payment on what’s needed to evict Erik Paulsen, who has 20x that amount in the bank and isn’t even breathing hard. Sund’s number is even worse. You can write off the 3rd for 2012.
Up in the 8th, they’d rather burn carpetbagger Clark than win the election. Unless Nolan pulls a very expensive rabbit from his hat before the endorsing convention, expect the DCCC to relocate that Red to Blue money to a spot with more realistic Democrats. Expect also that New Hampshire resident Chip Cravaack, with $500k currently banked, retains the MN 8th District seat in Congress.
You heard it here first.
$10,000?
Chip is going to lose, he’s swimming upstream and isn’t much of a swimmer.
What a help full comment, and so true. Just ask Walz, Wellstone, and even Chip. Yes sir why even bother? Maybe later on you can bitch about the citizen’s united decision. Better yet let’s just run millionaires who can self fund.
The party is full of folks like you who claim nobody can win and because of that you are usually right.
Instead of praising a candidate for putting him/her self on the line and putting his money and time into making the world a better place you post this.
Brian and all the candidates are working hard every day, besides posting garbage like this what are you proud of. I’ll take the Brian Barnes of the world over what you are doing any day of the week.
Look, the 3rd is going to be tough, especially since we punted it so bloody hard in 2010. (Sorry, Jim Meffert. You’re a nice guy, but you got clocked, and it pulled down other DFLers in the process) But A) that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and B) it doesn’t mean that a viable candidate can’t emerge.
Work hard, run a professional campaign, and position yourself to take advantage of a break coming your way. There are a lot of them that are possible in 2012: increased DFL turnout with Obama on the ticket, decreased GOP turnout with a disappointing presidential nominee, a major gaffe by Paulsen, and anti-incumbency wave against current members of congress, a reallocation of resources from DCCC to go after more marginal seats now seen as viable, etc. Do we know any of these are going to happen? Nope, but we should position ourselves to pounce if 1 or more start to happen. we should work as hard as possible to make any of them happen in our favor. It’s what Tim Walz did; he worked hard, raised small dollar donations all over his district, organized like hell, and was ready to pounce when Gutknecht punted it on DM&E. Tim wasn’t in much better financial shape than Barnes at this point, but he closed hard and strong.
Barnes is doing all the right things. He’s got a good story to tell and communicates it well, I think. He’s clearly working hard. Sund has a good story to tell too, but has more or less vanished from view since announcing, and her FR has been disappointing. Barnes is the stronger candidate right now.
Also, the only way the DCCC is going to pull money out of CD8 is if they’re certain they’ve got the district locked up. It’s #1 on their priority list for the nation, because they know they need it to have any shot to winning the House back. Nolan or Clark (or Anderson), the DCCC will spend serious money here and help the nominee raise more. Whether they will spend it wisely…
Major gaffe by Paulsen won’t happen. He is really good at not saying or doing anything that will make waves with constituents. The only thing that was ever brought up about him in the news was the fact that he was spending a large amount of money on full color glossy mailers which made him one of the top spenders in the Congress, as far as franking privileges are concerned. He is still doing that and no one seems to care.
Dear anonymous: How much have you contributed? I made a small contribution to the Barnes campaign on the internet. Everyone should.
And the Sund staffer who said the DCCC said she is the more viable candidate? That kind of circular firing squad internal politics is just what the Republicans hope we engage in. Not classy. Knock it off.
Last night was a typical night for the campaign, In Brian’s basement were 6 High school kids 2 collage unpaid interns all laughing and calling caucus attendees and texting their friends to invite them to meet and greets while Brian was upstairs making fund raising calls.
I haven’t been on a campaign this fun in a long time and we are being flooded with all these young kids who really want to join a campaign.
Money is important but every day these young people are inspiring and every one of them are leaving at night promising to bring more friends the next night. If this keeps up we are going to run out of room next week. The Neighbors are starting to complain about all the cars with Obama and Amy Bumper stickers parking in of this Nice Edina neighborhood.
Why write off CD3 already? Or assume we win back CD8? Just a reminder: we don’t know the district lines yet, so confident assertions about a district’s partisan lean make no sense. Just wait two more weeks.
Also remember that as bad as it looks when a candidate lacks money, we don’t know what’s going to happen. Walz and Cravaack couldn’t know the political winds would be so bad for incumbents of their opponents’ parties, but they were there when the opportunity presented itself. What if the economy keeps improving like we just saw? That would seem to make our assumptions just a wee bit invalid.
What if there’s a scandal? Mark Foley was safe before he got caught texting the pages. Anthony Weiner looked safe and his district flipped. Dennis Hastert’s district flipped after a unbelievable geographical coincidence of an earmark and his own property. So don’t bash candidates for trying to be in position if Cravaack or Paulsen get caught with cash in the freezer.
Just a long way of saying quitting this soon is ridiculous. Pick the best candidate, and be ready if events break your way.
From what I’ve seen, Brian Barnes’ campaign seems to be on the right track for taking on Paulsen. They seem to already have a cohesive, professional campaign that knows what it’s doing.
The DFL, especially in CD3, needs to stop tearing down their candidates with the best chance to win. $16,000? What exactly has the Sund campaign been doing? Obviously not fundraising. Spreading false rumors about a fellow Democrat is not going to beat Paulsen in November. Looks like they’re getting ripped off on those in-kind contributions too. I was at the caucus on Tuesday, and it appears the Sund campaign put all of that money into purple signs. In contrast, I met a lot of young, energetic, incredibly nice Barnes volunteers and interns. I’m glad the Barnes campaign is managing their money and investing in substance, rather than signs and lies.
Last night we had 14 pairs of shoes in the front entrance so all those kids did bring a friend. We have over 60 students who signed up for work this week.
We burned through the call list by 8:00 but they still stayed till 9:30 eating pizza and having a good time.
This summer the 3rd CD is going to have the best Voter ID, door knock and Telephone campaign in its history. These kids arn’t going to be just working for Brian but are going to be part of the entire ticket from top to bottom.
I was waiting for that answer. Each person committed to at least 40 hours of work is work at least a $500. If you had 200 of those people, I would consider that a $100,000.
Tommy, here’s my insider baseball answer: neither number is a particularly good one for the Sund campaign, so as a campaign staffer my preference would be to have a) the bigger number out there, and b) the more accurate number out there. raising only $41K over 4-6 months isn’t good, but people thinking you only raised $25K over the same time period is way worse. And I always prefer having an accurate picture out there. Always tell the truth, if for no other reason than it’s the easiest thing to remember…
Sund needs to get her FR into 6 figures by the end of march to be taken seriously. And that’s a pretty low bar, I think.
Barnes needs to keep his momentum and energy up, keep building his FR (keep out-raising Sund), and try to get more visibility in the District. I think he’s on track for the endorsement, but CD3 delegates are unpredictable. But right now Barnes looks like the best choice. I like him.
If you really look at the fundraising numbers Sharon Sund’s are much more impressive. Yes Barnes raised 53k, however over 35 thousand (two thirds) of that came from 6 members of his family. 15,000 from himself, 4,600 from his mother, 4,400 from his father, 1000 from his brother, and 10,000 from his in laws (wish I had in laws like that). Sharon’s money has come from donors out side her blood line. Sharon Sund’s campaign also has no debt as opposed to the Barnes campaign. At this stage fundraising is about convincing people outside your family to give to ones campaign, Sharon Sund has shown that, Brian Barnes has not. I think the $41,748 was more impressive considering the hustling she did to raise that amount of money.
There is no doubt she can raise the money needed run for Congress against her Super-Pac funded opponent. Sharon’s team look a lot more organized at precinct caucus than her opponent. Sharon has a well known reputation for raising money for democratic candidates. I will put my money on Sharon Sund!
John, neither candidate’s numbers are “impressive.”
The simple fact is Sund had a worse fundraising report in her 2nd FEC Report ($25k 3rd qtr; $16k 4th qtr) and that DOES raise doubts about fundraising ability.
Stating that isn’t “going negative” – it’s stating the fact that Sund’s fundraising trend is going the wrong way, despite claims from Staff – and now, you – that fundraising is one of her strengths.
If fundraising is one of her strengths, the FEC Reports don’t document it. For now, in my book, it’s only a claim – and one that doesn’t look particularly true.
The Barnes campaign has no debt. The snarky comment about his parents and how you wish you had parents like that. Well his mom is a teacher and dad maintains equipment. They are about as middle class as you get. Same with the in laws.
We are committed no to go negative on a fellow Democrat and have lived up to that pledge. We are also committed to the truth.
Here’s what we pledge: That the delegates at the endorsing convention on April 14th will see our report. We believe they deserve to know before they cast their votes.
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