Sarah Palin certainly didn’t put her money where her mouth is.
After targeting 20 Congressional seats with rifle scope bulls eye on her Facebook page last month, she didn’t donate a dime to those candidates she favored, according to Politics Daily.
Of course, it was only the first quarter filing requirement with the Federal Elections Commission and her SarahPAC arm may reach out to those candidates in the primaries, most of which will be held in April, May and June.
SarahPAC raked in $400,000 the first quarter and kept $900K in its coffers. It donated $7,500 to two Republicans not targeted and $2,000 each to two other political action committees.
Palin’s penchant for drawing national attention came the same day as President Obama signed the health reform overhaul legislation. Her Facebook page displayed a map with cross hairs painted on districts in which vulnerable Democrats voted for the legislation. The headline asked voters to “Don’t Retreat, Reload.”
She claimed a “government takeover of health care” and urged her followers “to reclaim the power of the people from those who disregarded the will of the people.”
Since quitting in midterm as Alaska governor, SarahPAC was formed and raised $2.5 million and spent $1.6 million.
In first quarter filings for 2010, it spent $243,000 in consulting fees for media strategy, fundraising, candidate research and grassroots coalitions. Somewhere in there are people who write her speeches and offer the zingers that bring her notability.
Among the $42,000 travel expenses was $7,300 for de-icing private planes.
One of the bull’s eye targeted candidates was Betsy Markey, (D-Fort Collins) who benefited from Palin’s Facebook blowback by raising $355,000 of her $505K contributions in the final two weeks of the quarter.
Since her unsuccessful run as vice president in 2008 on the John McCain Republican ticket and quitting the governor’s office, Palin reportedly has earned $12 million from her book, speeches and television contracts.
Her last reported joint returns with husband Todd Palin was for 2006 and 2007 in which their gross income was $179,000. They paid $36,682 in federal income taxes and contributed about $8,205 (4.5%) to charities for those two years.
—————-
EPILOGUE
As the sage once may have said, Sarah Palin gets curiouser and curiouser.
Cross posted on
Posted comments are welcome and automatically go to my email address at [email protected] in which I will reply when appropriate.
Jerry Remmers worked 26 years in the newspaper business. His last 23 years was with the Evening Tribune in San Diego where assignments included reporter, assistant city editor, county and politics editor.