What's he up to?

A look at State Sen. Russ Fulcher's 2007 year end financial disclosure raises some questions is interesting. As shown in the oval below, Fulcher had $6,507.50 cash on hand on January 1, 2007. He had contributions of $17,500 during the year (box), and spent $3,731.65 (line 5). Even without the new contributions, Fulcher had enough cash to cover his 2007 expenses.

Click to enlarge

But, look at line 1 below. You can see that on December 28, 2007, Fulcher loaned himself $12,000. He got $5,500 in contributions, plus his loan.



If he's got excess cash, why the loan? Why December 28? (Tax purposes, I guess, though a loan isn't deductible, so I don't see the tax angle.) Why not wait until he sees how contributions are going before loaning his campaign more money?

Another thing to note. Like Jim Risch, Fulcher isn't accruing interest on his loan to himself, nor paying it back.

Update: Saying "raises some questions" seems to imply that this is questionable, or wrong somehow. That's not the case at all. It's just interesting, to me, to see the machinations politicians go through with their finances, especially as they approach reelection.