Donors gave a House candidate more than $8 million. A single firm took nearly half of it.

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Donors gave a House candidate more than $8 million. A single firm took nearly half of it.

By Meagan Flynn and Michael Scherer
March 2, 2021 at 3:00 p.m. EST

U.S. House candidate Kim Klacik walked onto Mike Huckabee’s cable talk show last August as the latest conservative celebrity, riding high on a viral campaign ad that had attracted 10 million views and was shared on social media by President Donald Trump and his eldest son.

“We raised close to $2 million,” the Republican congressional hopeful said of the three-minute spot, which showed her marching in a red dress and high heels past abandoned buildings in Baltimore, asserting that Democrats do not care about Black lives.

But later that night, Klacik’s staff told her it would be best to stop disclosing how much money the ad had raised for her campaign against Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D) — because she wouldn’t be keeping much of it, Klacik recounted in an interview.

The company that produced the video, Arsenal Media Group, would take a cut. And a firm hired to promote the video, Olympic Media, would keep up to 70 percent of the money it generated, some of which was not disclosed in Klacik’s initial campaign finance filings.

Klacik, a self-described college dropout who launched a nonprofit organization to help disadvantaged women before running for office, said she did not personally approve or know about the contract with Olympic Media until that conversation.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/klacik-gop-campaign-donations/2021/03/02/76300fde-7077-11eb-85fa-e0ccb3660358_story.html

[Indykatie]

1. Republican Politics Is Just One Big Grifting Operation n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Wonkette has a great piece taking apart this bullshit

In The Republican Grift-o-Sphere, There Are No Patsies

The Post describes an unhealthy media ecosystem where "High-margin fundraising fees — sometimes in excess of 90 percent of a donor's first contribution — have sucked resources out of conservative politics" and first-time candidates are captive to rapacious media companies that "redirect [...] money that could be spent more directly on winning elections."

That's an odd thing to say about a candidate who lost a race by 49 points in April, collected $8 million, and then went on to lose by 43 points in November. Here on Planet Earth, there is no amount of money that "could be spent more directly on winning" this election, because the district is D+26. That's why local Republicans didn't bother to field a serious candidate and the national party ignored the race. The donors who saw her stupid ads and donated would have been better off giving their money to Kenneth Copeland — at least that gift is tax-deductible, and, heck, he might even pray for ya!
...
What did donors "get" for their money with Klacik, who knew damn well she had no chance of winning? Because it's real clear what Kim Klacik got. The Post notes that "within days of the Baltimore ad's release, she landed a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention," and that she's "now a frequent Fox News and Newsmax commentator," without pausing to wonder whether this might not have been the point of the whole exercise. Is it possible this entire campaign was an attempt to hoover up donor dollars in a craven attempt to boost this woman's profile and launch her into the lucrative wingnutosphere? Dunno, but that sure wouldn't fit with the Post's description of a doe-eyed innocent buffeted by forces beyond her control, so it appears they didn't bother to consider it.
...
That's right, she stomped her pointy stilettos and shouted that it was RIGGED. And with the connivance of the state's Republican governor, to boot! Then she took some of that mountain of cash the rubes sent her and plowed it into a very serious investigation.

https://www.wonkette.com/in-the-republican-grift-o-sphere-there-are-no-patsies

Twitter thread:

Link to tweet

And I searched DU for what Kim Klacik has been doing since the election - answer: Republican BS, for which she gets paid:

The swift and certain attacks on AOC’s gripping factual testimony of the events on Capitol Hill include the suggestion that maybe she did it for money and attention, as posited on Fox News by Kim Klacik.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215049011