Dewhurst Tosses in Another $2 Million of His Own Money

David Dewhurst loaned his campaign another $2 million of his own money, according to his Q4 report. That’s a considerable chunk of change, but I imagine the Cruz campaign is breathing a sigh of relief that it wasn’t 5 times that much.

Another thing that strikes me about his Q4 report (which I have only given a cursory glance to, given there’s more than 800 pages to it) is Dewhurst’s incredibly high burn rate. He’s already spent $4,397,491. Some examples of what he’s spending money on:

  • He seems to be spending $500 a day each on Facebook and Google advertising. I’m not sure that’s money well spent at this stage of the campaign. Last two weeks? Sure. Now? Not so much.
  • Campaign manager James Bognet seems to be pulling down a cool $35,000 a month, plus reimbursement expenses.
  • Finance director Rebecca McMullin is pulling down a respectable $9,480 a month, plus expenses. Kevin Moomaw, an old Dewhurst hand he lured back from his cushy job as a UT professor, is making about the same, which is a goooooooooood salary. (Inside joke.)
  • He gave pollster Michael Baselice just over $24,000.
  • The nice thing about being the “bank” in the race is that you don’t have to worry about funding a top-heavy campaign if you’re getting results. Is he? So far the Dewhurst campaign hasn’t knocked me out with its organizational skill. It’s competent, but I think both the Cruz and Leppert campaigns have been more obviously focused and effective at communicating. But I’m probably not the type of voter the Dewhurst campaign is trying to reach (as far as I can tell, Team Dewhurst reachout to bloggers and new media (beyond the obligatory Facebook and Twitter accounts) is non-existent).

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    2 Responses to “Dewhurst Tosses in Another $2 Million of His Own Money”

    1. Building Facebook fans up now is better than in the final two weeks. I also believe Google ads can be effective, as long as you’re gathering email addresses and converting donors and volunteers, etc.

      Agreed that Dewhurst has not done any significant blogger outreach. But I’d suggest that spending $500 a day on social media ads is a better use of funds than well over $1000 a day he is spending on his campaign manager.

    2. […] next report? Not only does that lower his investment in the campaign, it skews the expenditures – Lawrence reported that Dewhurst had already spent $4.4 million when in reality he spent $2.4. Still a lot of money but it puts his campaign closer to the other […]

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