Fiscal Conservative my Arse
Posted by Andy on August 30th, 2006
Someone, and I won’t embarrass them by saying who, told me once that Peter Hutchinson was THE fiscal conservative in the Governor’s race. I beg to differ.
MPR’s Laura McCallum has a report today that details how IP-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Peter Hutchinson ended up with just $16,000 left in his campaign coffers as of this week’s pre-primary report.
Among other things, he spent $21,000 to rent a hotel ballroom to announce his campaign and has paid staff so far about $250,000.
He’s counting on the taxpayers to give a boost to his campaign with a public subsidy of about $283,000. And his campaign says they’ve been raising money since the end of the reporting period.
Of course fundraising isn’t the only way to judge the success of a campaign, but this story does raise some questions.
Is the “major party” bar set too low in Minnesota? (It takes 5 votes out of every hundred cast statewide to qualify)
Does Hutchinson’s campaign spending reflect at all on his campaign message that he can best manage the state budget?
I think not.
Sphere: Related Content
August 30th, 2006 at 7:23 pm
Meanwhile Tim Pawlenty and Mike Hatch have already spent more on there campaigns. The only story here is that Hutchinson does not have the special interest dollars Hatch and Pawlenty do, you don’t run a campaign without spending money.