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Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Reichert chief of staff apologizes for misrepresenting third quarter numbers

Over the last few days there's been rampant speculation about Dave Reichert's third quarter fundraising reports, which as Dan Kirkdorffer detailed yesterday, have some very interesting oddities:
[W]hat has really struck so many observers in the blogosphere regarding Reichert's results is just how much it appeared he was spending as his cash on hand numbers, the number that ultimately will make the difference as the election nears, were continuing to lag Burner's. Going into the quarter he had $23,000 less cash on hand, but after Bush's visit and the end of the 3rd quarter, he had $41,000 less cash on hand.

Well it turns out that the main reason for that is the fact he recorded a huge $47,100 worth in refunds of contributions from individuals, and for the election cycle he has now refunded over $52,000 in contributions. For the entire previous election cycle Reichert only recorded $16,000 in refunds of contributions. My assumption is that these refunds are due to improper, or tainted contributions of some sort. I'll be interested if anyone can shed some light on them.
Reichert's chief of staff, Mike Shields, tried to explain what happened to the Associated Press in an article published after Dan's initial post:
Those refunds had to be issued because of mistakes in dividing the Bush money between Reichert's re-election campaign and the state Republican Party, which shared the more than $500,000 raised by the president.

The refunded contributions will be repaid, so Reichert is counting those contributions toward his third quarter total, Shields said.

Overall, Reichert has already cashed about $200,000 from the Bush visit to Bellevue, with more expected to roll in as officials continue splitting up the money, Shields said.
Shields told Seattle Times chief political reporter David Postman and other members of the press last week that Reichert's campaign had raised a total of $830,440 for 2007, with $340,800 in the third quarter, which included the Bush fundraising visit.

Today, however, Shields authorized a press release admitting he had misunderstood the campaign's actual numbers:

Mike Shields, spokesman for Friends of Dave Reichert, issued the following statement today:

"Late last week and earlier this week I made a mistake in representing the amount of money Friends of Dave Reichert (FDR) raised in the third quarter of 2007. FDR had to return some of the funds that were deposited in its account and I misunderstood the accounting surrounding those refunds.

"The correct numbers, as reported to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) show the Reichert campaign raised $294,888 in the 3rd quarter of 2007. So far this cycle the campaign has raised $766,703. The campaign has $339,460 cash on hand.

"I apologize for the mistake and for any incorrect stories that were written or broadcast because of it. I encourage media outlets to correct the record.

"I certainly did not intend to mislead anyone, especially in the full knowledge that the numbers are made public by the FEC.

"The discrepancy occurred because FDR used a credit card application while raising money for a Joint Fundraising Account in August which mistakenly put money into the wrong account. This caused $47,100 in electronic over-payments that had to be refunded in compliance with FEC law, all of which is detailed in FDR's FEC report. Returning over-payments is common practice in campaigns.

"In an effort to respond to early media inquiries about our soon-to-be public FEC report, I asked the campaign fundraiser and treasurer for an explanation of our numbers before releasing them. I misunderstood what they told me, which is entirely my fault, and gave incorrect information to the press. As someone who has worked with the media my entire career, I feel terrible that I made a mistake that led to erroneous stories being written and broadcast and I will ensure that figures are reported accurately in the future."
Oops. (Emphasis mine).

Looks like yet another sign that the Bush-powered Reichert campaign is sinking as Darcy Burner's people-powered campaign soars.

With $305,000 raised in the third quarter, Darcy bested Reichert's Dubya-assisted fundraising (without the advantage of incumbency!) and has more cash on hand than the Auburn Republican. That's impressive. Reichert supporters must be dismayed that an appearance by the figurehead of their party...the guy in that white house on Pennsylvania Avenue who's on television every night... couldn't bring in enough cash into Reichert's coffers to outperform Darcy and the netroots community. Ouch!

A huge kudos to Dan for spotting this error and forcing the Reichert campaign to admit the numbers provided to the media last week were incorrect.

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