U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham has a $7 million mountain of special interest money to spend on his 2014 reelection bid – a mountain that’s likely to grow this month when he releases his latest financial information.
How much more money will Graham add to the pile?
We’ll see ..
But perhaps a bigger question is whether any of Graham’s four (soon to be five?) challengers will begin to emerge as a credible fundraiser in their own right …
During the third quarter of 2013, Charleston businesswoman Nancy Mace led the “anti-Graham” field by raising roughly $140,000. S.C. Sen. Lee Bright came in second, raising approximately $100,000, while Upstate businessman and social conservative Richard Cash raised around $15,000.
Orangeburg attorney and Afghan War veteran Bill Connor had yet to enter the race at that point …
If a credible anti-Graham alternative is to emerge – a candidate national groups are willing to invest in – then one of these candidates is going to have to demonstrate in short order the ability to raise substantially more than $100,000 a quarter.
Anyway, stay tuned to FITS as we’ll bring you the financials from each campaign as soon as we have them this month …
14 comments
Someone told me Bill Connor was once in the military? Is that true? If so, he should mention it sometime.
Col, in keeping with your impressive level of sarcasm, I’ll just say this – he’s a super humble guy who would never mention his service to this country except in the most gave or important of circumsatnces -like arguing over a parking spot; a fast food purchase; conversation with a telemarketer or wrong number; et cetera, AD NASEUM!!!!
Please tell me he isn’t really posting signs with a Bronze Star on them!?!
Numbers should be released this Wednesday, yes?
Actually it turns out fourth quarter numbers – unlike the other quarters – don’t get released until the 31st. So it will be the end of the month. Every other quarter they are due on the 15th.
The money bowl
Fraud, failure and bankruptcy pay well for CEOs
Commentary: Have you fed your Cash-Eating Organism today?
Richard Fuld had a $66 million payday in 2000 because, well, he was a great chief executive officer, now wasn’t he?
Though the Internet bubble popped and the Nasdaq peaked in 2001, he made another $105.2 million. In 2002, he bagged yet another $28.7 million; 2003, $52.9 million; 2004, $41.8 million; 2005, $104.4 million; 2006, $27.3 million; 2007, $40 million.
His tab for eight years of CEO work came to $466.3 million.
You may still remember the name of his company. It was called Lehman Brothers. In 2008, it set a record as history’s largest bankruptcy, setting off the nuclear reaction we now call the financial crisis and cementing America’s future as a socialist state for giant banks and corporations.
Fuld is among the cast of characters enumerated in a retrospective report released by the Institute for Policy Studies: “Executive Excess 2013. Bailed Out, Booted, Busted: A 20-Year Review of America’s Top-Paid CEOs.” Before 2008, he made the list of America’s top 25 highest-paid executives for eight years in a row.
“To be in the top 25 for eight consecutive years before you crash and burn the economy, it’s just unbelievable,” said Sarah Anderson, one of the report’s authors.
Her study analyzed 500 corporate executive positions that have been listed in The Wall Street Journal’s annual executive pay surveys over the past 20 years.
When she began this research, she expected bailed-out, booted and busted CEOs would make up maybe 15% of the sample. But no, it tallied 38%.
“These poorly performing chief executives either wound up getting fired, had to pay massive settlements or fines related to fraud charges, or led firms that crashed or had to be bailed out during the 2008 financial crisis,” the report says.
• CEOs whose firms received taxpayer bailouts or ceased to exist held 22% of these 500 slots over the past two decades.
• CEOs who were forced out of their jobs made up 8%. (This is not bad work, if you can get it: The average golden parachute was valued at $48 million.)
• CEOs who led companies paying significant fraud-related fines or settlements comprised another 8% of the sample. (Most of these settlements totaled more than $100 million
Nearly 40% of the top-paid executives were bailed out, booted out or busted.
The as yet unannounced TBG candidacy raised $24.99 and spent it on a fundraiser (Sam Adams Seasonal and Doritos) during the Panthers game. The campaign is now $2.43 in the red.
If it is any consolation, if I see “Tonto Bubba Goldstein” on the ballot, I will check it.
One dollar, one vote.
Nancy is picking up steam. This is grass roots, remember Rubio dethroning Crist!
The climate at the time was much stronger for newcomers. The Tea Party’s strength has waned greatly. Don’t get your hopes up.
I’m not hoping. I’m getting to work. South Carolina and America need Nancy Mace! #NancyMace #Send Lindsey home
In before Graham spends all but maybe a mil on curb stomping people in the primary, wins, gets another 6 years courtesy of the crappy voters in SC.
All Nancy Mace has to do is tag Lindsey Graham to Chris Christie and the “Hillary Whitewater” campaign funding scenario and WHAM-o…!!!