Tale of the Till, State Senate primary edition

John Beydler has once again done the work required to wring telling details from the numbers in candidate's financial disclosure filings, this time focusing on the money spent in Illinois State Senate primary contests.

Some very interesting facts emerge, among them:

• There were 65 state senate candidates running in 39 primary races.
  
  
• Big Mike Jacobs outspent 57 of the candidates, ranking number 8 on the Big Spender's list.

Beydler also provides the always interesting cost per vote figures and finds that in the case of the District 33 Democratic primary pitting Dan Kotowski against James J. Morici, Jr, Morici spent $78.08 for EACH VOTE, which I assume is the highest per vote total.

While Beydler cites the lopsided spending in the District 1 Munoz vs Torres primary, in which Munoz outspent Torres by 21 to 1, it shows that for his money, Munoz emerged with a 77 to 23% victory or a 54% margin.

The Jacobs/Rumler primary was nearly as lop-sided, but Jacobs didn't do anywhere near as well.

Jacobs outspent newcomer and near unknown challenger Paul Rumler 18 to 1 in order to pull off a 12% margin, 56%-44%.

For the Jacobs/Rumler primary, the tale of the till in spending per vote breaks down as:

Jacobs: $17.04
Rumler: $1.22

That's a whopping margin per vote of $15.82, or nearly $13.98 for every $1 spent by Rumler.

Put another way, Jacobs spent 1785% of Rumler's expenditure to get 12% more votes,

But perhaps most interestingly, Beydler discovers an area in which Sen. Jacobs stands head and shoulders above all others, but one which we've not heard him boast about as yet.

Among all 65 Senate candidates, Jacobs was far and away No. 1 in the category of un-itemized expenditures. Of the $142,178 he spent, $17,848, or 12.3 percent was un-itemized.

In comparison, the biggest spender, Morici, had outlays of $373,092, of which only $1,234, or .03 percent, was un-itemized.

As noted in Beydler's post, disclosure law requires that all payments to people or vendors receiving more than an aggregate of $150 must be listed as an itemized expense.

As a commenter notes, this means that Jacobs must have spent just less than that amount a staggering 119 times in the six month reporting period, or about 20 times each month, an amount way, way out of line with any of the other 65 financial reports filed by senate candidates.

Also in keeping is the $14,925 the Jacobs campaign reported spending at various restaurants and clubs for "campaign food",parties, and one assumes, liquid refreshments and fund-raising, though it's not specified.
This averages about $2500 per month.

You owe it to yourself to read the post here if you haven't already, as well as peruse the report yourself.

Some items of interest among the $124,330.41 in itemized expenditures:

$663.60 to American Airlines for "PROMOTE ILLINOIS BUSINESS TRIP" - no destination listed.
$640.50 to John Collins for "flags"
$14,250.00 to a D.C. area firm for a "poll"
$1,009.46 to "EMEDIA C INC" for "POLOTICAL CALLING" (sic)
$3085.45 to Ford Motor Credit for "lease" for 5 months ($617.09/mo)
$1,400.54 to Hunter's Club for post-St. Pat's parade party
$1,077.56 to Hy-Vee for "election eve food"
$2,300.00 to East Moline Legion for "ELECTION NIGHT GATHERING"
$450.00 to Master DJ for "entertainment election night"
$1,599.27 to Short Hills Country Club for "volunteer appreciation"
$3,908.06 to The Roosevelt Group of Chicago for "consulting"
$2000 to Tina Sumner for "RESEARCH CAMPAIGN STRATEGIES", or opposition research.
$179.91 to The Liquor Box for "gifts"

There are also four contributions amounting to $2595 to various community groups.

$800.00 to the Boys and Girls Club
$295.00 to East Moline/Silvis Kiwanis Club
$1,000.00 to Moline Learning Center
$250.00 to Music in the Park
$250.00 to Silvis Family Run for a sponsorship

It also lists $730.00 to Van Tieghem Accounting for "professional fees"

They surely can account for all the unitemized expenditures, one would hope.