The one thing I’m sure I will win is the distinction of spending less per vote received than either Jim Oberstar or Rod Grams.
Rod will spend 3 or 4 hundred thousand buckeroos for his 30% share of the vote and Jim will spend around one-and-a-half million for his 60% share. If I only receive 10% of the vote my $10,000 in spending, though exceedingly modest, will have been much more potent. I’ll have gotten each voter for about 30 cents. Oberstar will have spent closer to $7 for each of his votes.
Last night Claudia finally asked me how much I’d spent. She was appalled but laughed at the sum. It was double what I’d mentally set two months ago as a personal limit. What can I say? I was overcome by vanity. She was appalled but she also laughed ruefully as she pointed out it was a year’s tuition for some colleges. I told her that if I ever ran for anything again it would be with other people’s money.
I’ve been struggling with the darned Federal Election Commission report. I’m a lousy accountant. Even with a calculator toting up sums my fingers miss as badly as th3ey do when I’m typing.
I’m a day or two overdue on my first report. I didn’t have to turn anything in until I crossed the $5,000 spending barrier which happened at the beginning of October. I read somewhere that the fines for late reports had been reduced for tiny campaign budgets like mine. I did fax a 48-hour report to the Commission yesterday saying that I’d received (from myself) recent contributions over $1,000. Since I’ve received no PAC contributions and no donations from wealthy benefactors of greater than $200 I’m not too worried about having to pay huge fines.
I could have worked on the report again this morning in hopes of overnighting it to the FEC but I decided to go swimming instead. I have other campaign stuff to finish off like putting up more lawnsigns. I plastered them all along 21st Ave East for the 25,000 vehicals that travel up and down its slope daily. Next I want to surround UMD with them in hopes of influencing the young independent college voters of UMD and St. Scholastica. I’ll tackle the report again on Sunday, meanwhile, I’ve got leaves to rake and Halloween pumpkins to carve.
