According to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, more than $7 million went to advertising. That figure doesn’t include a reported $3 million in television ads spent in battleground states like Iowa and New Hampshire over the last month. Another $7 million went to staff and consultants. Just under $5 million was spent on direct mailings in 2003. Roughly $2 million went to travel expenses, while another $2 million went to technology costs–no surprise for a campaign invested so heavily on its success over the Internet.
But the story of how Dean went from being the best-financed Democrat in the field to a candidate struggling to pay the bills doesn’t purely rest on the miscalculation of advertising too early or hiring too many staffers. Nor, perhaps, can it be cast as overly extravagant given that FEC records show George W. Bush spent $33.7 million–$2 million more than Dean–last year, even though the president wasn’t fighting any nomination battles of his own.
Over the course of 2003, Dean’s fund-raising success transformed the campaign from an insurgent effort based heavily on volunteer support to a free-spending campaign where the little things began to add up.
Take the Dean camp’s penchant for investing in campaign kitsch. Last summer, the former governor carried along on the campaign trail a Louisville Slugger, a physical reminder of the baseball-bat graphic posted on the campaign’s Web site that measured Internet fund-raising goals. Last September, after a particularly fruitful fund-raising period, the campaign spent $2,772 at the Louisville Slugger Museum to purchase, among other things, several personalized “Dean for America” bats–prices starting at $75 apiece, according to the museum’s Web site.
In November, the campaign spent nearly $3,000 on cowbells, which were given to supporters to jingle at a single event : the Iowa Democratic Party’s Jefferson Jackson Dinner. In July, the campaign spent more than $6,000 in a single visit to Lake Champlain Chocolates, a premium truffle-maker based in Dean’s state of Vermont. Another $350 went to Highland Sugarworks of Vermont for maple syrup and $691 to Cabot Creamery, one of the state’s leading cheesemakers. According to the campaign, all were thank-you gifts to donors and supporters.
While other candidates scrimped, the Dean campaign spent at least $300,000 on memorabilia emblazoned with the Dean for America logo last year, including fleece jackets, hats, scarves, buttons, T shirts and sweatshirts; most were given out to staffers and volunteers. In Iowa, thousands of orange wool hats were distributed to anyone who agreed to knock on doors or get out the vote on Dean’s behalf.
More than $650,000 went toward food last year, including catering costs for fund-raising events. Of that, nearly $40,000 went to Wolfgang Puck, who catered five Dean events last year, according to FEC records. Spago, the chef’s famed Los Angeles restaurant, was paid another $5,000. That’s not to suggest the Dean campaign only dined lavishly. Over the course of the year, the campaign spent at least $10,000 on pizza deliveries–mostly in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Perhaps the biggest costs, however, were associated with Dean’s attempts at raising bigger checks. Reports show the campaign spent in upward of $1 million to rent event sites, build stages and secure lighting and audio equipment–including more than $200,000 spent on a weeklong series of fund-raisers aimed at attracting the support of well-heeled donors last December.
One event, held at Boston’s Davio’s Restaurant, featured singer Carly Simon, a former John Kerry supporter who was on hand to endorse Dean. The $1,500-per-person event raised a little over $200,000, according to the campaign, but records show the campaign paid out nearly $50,000 in catering costs, as well as $4,336 to Simon, who also performed at the event. A fund-raiser that same week at Hollywood’s House of Blues also cost the campaign more than $50,000–including payouts to performers including Big Bad Voodoo Daddy ($1,744) and the Bangles ($1,568).
All told, the Dean campaign entered 2004 with just $10 million of the record-setting contributions it raised last year. Despite troubles at the polls, the former Vermont governor continues to raise funds, bringing in more than $6 million since the beginning of the year–$1 million of that since last week, when Dean told supporters that he’d be out of the race if he loses the upcoming Wisconsin primary (a statement he later retracted). The question of how much cash Dean has left is a closely guarded figure–as it is with most of his rivals’ campaigns.
Already the blame game on who squandered the cash has begun, with many fingers pointed at former campaign manager Joe Trippi, whose political consulting firm received more than $7 million from the Dean campaign for advertising buys. Instead of a salary, Trippi was paid a commission based on those ad buys–around $165,000, he told reporters Monday.
But speaking on “Meet the Press” last week, Dean said he did not blame his campaign staff for the spending. “I signed off on all of that personally,” he said. “So I don’t have any thoughts that it was their fault, not mine. It was my fault … We took a gamble, and it didn’t pay off.” Except, perhaps, for the vendors.
