Risch's finances

Candidates filed their campaign finance reports at the end of 2007. A look at Jim Risch's is interesting. First, look at the year end filing for 2006. (Click any to enlarge.) You'll note that Risch hadn't paid down his debt from his 2002 Lt Gov race. It was still at $360,000, "plus accrued interest," which his finance guy didn't bother to figure.



By May 30, 2007, 5 months later, the debt was down by $125,000, to $235,000. Still no interest shown.



As you can see below, a payment of $125,000 on campaign debt was made on May 4, 2007. This was a month before Larry Craig was arrested for lewd conduct. At that point, Craig hadn't announced whether he would run for another term, but there was speculation that he might not.



Risch's year end report for 2007 shows some movement. The debt is now shown as $337,872.33. How'd he get to that figure? He finally added interest.


As you see below, Risch paid the debt down an additional $10,000 on October 18, 2007, when he transferred the money to his debt from his Lt Gov campaign cash on hand. He then added in $112,872.33 in interest figured over the life of the loan. Note that Risch announced his US Senate bid on October 9, 2007, 9 days before the paydown of the Lt Gov debt.



This debt might come in handy. Under Idaho law, contributions by a person or PAC to a candidate are limited. However, the same amount that can be given to the campaign for an election can also be given to retire debt. Thus, a person came effectively double a contribution to a candidate if it is to retire debt. As here, where Risch loaned himself the money, any debt retirement goes right into his pocket. He can then use that money for whatever, including self-funded campaign expense.

So, if a person were so inclined, the person (or PAC) could give Risch the maximum for his Senate bid, could donate the max to Risch's campaign for Lt Gov (if he loses the Senate he may well run for Lt Gov again), and could donate the max to Risch's debt retirement. Risch could use the debt repayment to fund his Senate bid, and (I think) his Lt Gov campaign could donate its funds to the Senate campaign. Or, the Lt Gov campaign could just continue to pay down the debt, thereby giving the money to Risch to spend on his Senate bid. Pretty slick, eh?

Update: It occurred to me that this post could be taken as an accusation against Risch, so I thought I'd clarify. I don't see any evidence that Risch is doing anything improper. Even if he were to do as I described, it would be legal. The point is that our campaign financing laws have a large loophole.

Later update: Another point of the post is just to reveal some of the maneuvering a candidate, in this case Risch, does regarding financing.

Legiblogs

I added a new item in my side bar, titled "Legibloggers," standing of course for legislator bloggers. Interestingly, so far the same trend among political bloggers is evident with our legibloggers, i.e., more blue than red.

And on a related item, Betsy Russell reports on Larry Craig's lauding of his website. Craig also gives kudos to Crapo for his web site. I wonder what Jim Risch makes of this, since he's still dark in the internets and blogosphere.

Update: After deep personal reflection and much polling and focus grouping, it occurred to me that it's probably more accurate to call the legislators' blogs "legiblogs," but to call the folks doing it "blogislators." So I made that change. Alert the media!

Risch and his planes

Remember when Jim Risch ran for Lt. Gov. while he was Gov? He was positively peripatetic, flitting all around the state to hand out awards, appear at hospital bed sides, and basically get photo ops. Many folks concluded that Risch was essentially campaigning for Lt. Gov. on the state's dime.

Risch got around so much by making frequent use of the state's plane. Now that he's running for Senate, he' s using Melaluca's plane, or maybe it's the personal property of Melaluca owener Frank VanderSloot, according to the Statesman. Anyway, he's cozying up to an extreme right businessman right from the start. Doesn't bode well for Idaho.

Risch's opponent Rex Rammell

Rex Rammell says he's going to file the papers to challenge Risch for the Senate seat currently held with a wide stance by Larry Craig. I looked over his web site, and, if you say nothing else about Rammell, you can say he's right on the issues for lots of Idahoans

Seal the borders, anti-abortion, tax cuts, gun rights, he's there. He also makes it clear, by referring to his and his son's LDS missions, that he's right with the dominant religion in the Southern end of the state. The guy has a BA, a masters degree, and a doctorate. His wife is a respected educator. He's got an attractive family; one of his daughters was Miss Idaho, like Gov Otter's wife.



If he can get his story out, and can shed the image of an out of control anti state government nut, he might draw some votes. I don't think he'll win, since Risch has been anointed like Gov Otter was, but Rammell seems to have the bona fides to put up a fight. This will cause Risch to spend money he doesn't want to, and it may cause him to stake out some positions earlier than he'd perhaps like to.

If Rammell is smart, or maybe you'd call it canny, or possibly something worse, he'll cozy up to the Club For Growth. He's already taken the Taxpayer Protection Pledge from the Americans for Tax Reform, and has an image of it on his site. The money the CFG could send could cause serious problems for Risch. That would be fun to watch.

Update: If I'm going to write about a guy, I ought to at least spell his name right, so I added the other l to Rammell's last name.

Risch; Fresh Ideas?

I checked today and couldn't find a web site for Risch for Senate. Risch's primary opponent, Rex Rammel, already has one up. (h/t Mountain Goat) Larry LaRocco has a website up, and he also has a blog. As Betsy Russell reported, Risch says he doesn't read blogs and he doesn't pay attention to comments in them.

Well, that's not surprising. The Idaho blogosphere is much more blue than red, so there's not as much to pull Risch in. Also, Risch is an old school guy. I know guys his age that don't even like to use email or computers. Russell ( or maybe it was Jill Kuraitis) once reported that Risch, wearing a sport coat and tie, apologized for his informality for not wearing a suit. That's some serious old school thinking.

I think Risch's old school mein, and his apparent lack of interest in the internet (he's announced for Senate, but no web site) says something about Risch's ability to bring new thinking to Congress. What it says is, not so much. "How I've always done business has worked for me and I see no reason to change."

Update: In the credit where credit is due department, Jill Kuraitis was the first person to ask Risch about whether he reads blogs or online news.