Michele Bachmann’s Leadership PAC Spends 145 Times More on Legal Fees Than Campaigns
a ThinkProgress analysis of campaign finance data reveals that, so far this year, the PAC has done almost nothing that would qualify as “political action.” Between January 1 and June 30, the committee reported raising nearly $300,000 and has spent more than $250,000. Of that, just 0.16 percent — a $400 contribution to a former staffer running for Mahaska County Supervisor in Oskaloosa, Iowa — went to the PAC’s alleged purpose of “helping elect leaders everywhere.”
Where did the rest of the money go? More than $58,000 went to legal fees — unsurprising given the legal imbroglio, but hardly helpful to her political cause. About $170,000 went to telemarketing, direct mailing, list rental, credit card fees, and other expenses associated with fundraising. The rest went to accounting and other overhead.
While political action committees, including leadership PACs, are mostly free to spend money on whatever the choose, the percentage spent on political activity is unusually low and MICHELEPAC appears to spending virtually nothing on its stated mission. In fact, no other leadership PAC that spent more than $100,000 in the first half of 2013 spent less than 7 percent on political activity and the median level was about 44 percent among those groups.
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