1/13/2016 Carson Rakes in Cash, Spends Big on Mail and Fundraising www.nationaljournal.com Carson Rakes in Cash, Spends Big on Mail and Fundraising The retired neurosurgeon topped the GOP field in cash donations in the third quarter. S.V. Dáte @SVDATE } October 15, 2015 Dir ect mail firms, email mar keters, and fun drais ing con sult ants for re tired neurosur geon Ben Car son had a big third quarter this year, gross ing $11.6 mil lion, ac cord ing to new Fed er al Elec tion Com mis sion fil ings. Car son’s pres id en tial cam paign did well, too, net ting $9 mil lion in us able con tri bu tions after ac count ing for those fun drais ing costs. And it’s those two fig ures that help ex plain how Car son, a polit ic al novice, has topped the Re pub lic an field in cash dona tions in the three months that ended Sept. 30: About 56 per cent of his muchtouted $20.7 mil lion haul was spent rais ing it. Cam paign spokes wo man Deana Bass said the high per cent age rate was to be ex pec ted for a new cam paign. “Ob vi ously, in the be gin ning we were do ing a lot of list ac quis i tion and cul tiv at ing new donors,” she said. “We’ve cer tainly been pleased with the volume of donors.” http://www.nationaljournal.com/s/90776/carsonrakescashspendsbigmailfundraising?a=S.V.%20D%C3%A1te&o=20&mref=search 1/5 1/13/2016 Carson Rakes in Cash, Spends Big on Mail and Fundraising Cam paigns that can tap in to a highdol lar donor base can lim it their fun drais ing ex penses to about 15 per cent of what’s col lec ted. “Cam paigns do what they need to to raise funds,” said Al Carde n as, a fun draiser for and long time sup port er of former Flor ida Gov. Jeb Bush. “Typ ic ally a ma jor donor base is your best op tion since your net yield is much high er.” A total of $4.2 mil lion went to El ev enty Mar ket ing Group in Ak ron, Ohio, $1.8 mil lion to Ac tion Mail ers in As ton, Pennsylvania, and $1.3 mil lion to TMA Dir ect in Re ston, Vir gin ia. In con trast, pay ments for “payroll,” nor mally one of a cam paigns’ biggest ex penses, totaled just $169,000 to a dozen in di vidu als. The hefty pay ments to dir ectmail and email fun drais ing com pan ies also ex plain how Car son pulled in $12.4 mil lion in dona tions un der $200, com pared to $8.3 mil lion in large dona tions, up to $2,700, the leg al max im um per elec tion. Some of those con tri bu tions also paid for up scale travel that most oth er cam paigns avoid, par tic u larly early in the primary sea son. The Car son cam paign paid $1,401 to Sparks Steak House in New York City (where it’s pos sible to buy a $105 bottle of 2012 Cali for nia Mer lot), $19,355 to Star base Jets in Ad dis on, Texas, and $3,209 to the Stan ford Park Hotel in Menlo Park, Cali for nia. Car son nev er the less starts the fi nal months of the years with $11.2 mil lion on hand, put ting him in the top tier of can did ates in that cat egory, which in cludes Bush, Sen. Marco Ru bio of Flor ida, and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Celebrity busi ness man Don ald Trump has only a quartermil lion on hand, but the fig ure is mean ing less as he has already demon strated the abil ity to write him self a sev enfig ure loan. Car son is com ing in a close second to Trump in most re cent polls, but is nev er the less run ning an un con ven tion al cam paign with al most no at tempt to de tail policy po s i tions. And this week, Car son is start ing a twoweek pub li city tour for his latest book, “A More Per fect Uni on,” which will lim it his cam paign events. http://www.nationaljournal.com/s/90776/carsonrakescashspendsbigmailfundraising?a=S.V.%20D%C3%A1te&o=20&mref=search 2/5
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