Eight days out: What the Controller candidates are spending their money on

You may recall I looked at how the Controller candidates were spending their money after the 30 day reports came out, and I figured I’d do it again with the 8 day reports. Along the way, I found a little surprise. I’ll get to that in a minute. Here we go:

Candidate Amount Purpose ============================================================ Ronald Green 809.17 Printing Ronald Green 1,301.17 Printing Ronald Green 1,081.42 Door hangers Ronald Green 150.00 Ad (Riverside UMC) Ronald Green 16,573.30 Direct mail Ronald Green 16,573.30 Direct mail

Well, he’s sending mail. That’s something. And I even got one of his mailers yesterday. Progress! Anybody else get some mail from Green?

Candidate Amount Purpose ============================================================ MJ Khan 500.00 GOTV services MJ Khan 6,000.00 Radio ad production and buy MJ Khan 105,048.70 TV media buy MJ Khan 18,300.00 TV ad production MJ Khan 1,100.00 GOTV services MJ Khan 5,000.00 Ad (Tx Conservative Review) MJ Khan 10,000.00 Ad (HCRP) MJ Khan 214,473.00 TV & radio media buy MJ Khan 1,690.00 GOTV services MJ Khan 2,895.69 Printing of signs MJ Khan 2,500.00 Radio ad buy MJ Khan 2,000.00 Ad (Aubrey Taylor Communications)

Pretty decent media buy. Khan’s $300K will get him a fair amount of TV time, including in some places that don’t have very many voters. Note the $5K ad with the Texas Conservative Review, which you’ll see again and again, and the accompanying $10K ad with the Harris County GOP, which most Republican candidates bought at some level as well. Gotta give ’em credit for knowing how to make a buck when the opportunity presents itself.

Candidate Amount Purpose ============================================================ Pam Holm 10,000.00 Video shoot Pam Holm 10,063.82 Direct mail Pam Holm 3,750.00 GOTV field ops Pam Holm 125.00 Ad (South Wesley AMC) Pam Holm 5,000.00 Ad (Tx Conservative Review) Pam Holm 1,000.00 GOTV Pam Holm 10,000.00 Radio time Pam Holm 612.40 Ad (Houston Community Newspapers) Pam Holm 1,650.81 Yard Signs Pam Holm 1,914.94 Push cards and letterhead Pam Holm 14,641.00 Mailer Pam Holm 1,350.00 Push cards Pam Holm 5,000.00 Ad (HCRP) Pam Holm 50.00 Ad (Acres Homes Citizen Council) Pam Holm 1,500.00 Ad (Aubrey Taylor Communications) Pam Holm 487.13 T-shirts Pam Holm 1,850.00 Push cards Pam Holm 4,350.00 Ad (Aubrey Taylor Communications) Pam Holm 2,301.40 Signs Pam Holm 22,158.91 Direct Mail

Okay, something here is missing. We know Pam Holm is on the air – Martha asked around on Facebook and received confirmation from a couple of people that they have seen her ad several times, on CNN. Yet I cannot find a line item in her finance report that would correspond to a media buy of that magnitude. She only listed about $180K of spending in her report, which frankly wouldn’t buy that much TV time if that’s all it were being spent on. Stephen Costello’s report for his At Large #1 race showed $160K spent on a TV buy, and that’s the smallest one I’ve seen so far. Heck, just look at how much MJ Khan spent. She’s been on the air long enough that this should be accounted for in this report – it’s not in her 30 days out report – unlike the situation from earlier this month where Gene Locke announced his debut on TV after the reporting deadline for the 30 day reports. So I’m going to ask here: Where is Pam Holm’s spending on TV advertising documented? Maybe I’m missing something, and if so I hope someone will point me to it. But especially with Holm taking shots at Green about his tax lien, I think it’s fair to wonder why Holm has apparently filed an incomplete finance report.

UPDATE: Via Greg, here’s the purchase order for Holm’s ad buy. Martha has more.

Related Posts:

This entry was posted in Election 2009 and tagged , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

12 Responses to Eight days out: What the Controller candidates are spending their money on

  1. John says:

    I agree Pam definitely should explain things a bit more. But also your boy Ron has just given a lame excuse on his $120K tax lien. That is why you should vote for MJ, the only intelligent one of the group with real work experience

  2. Wood says:

    And we should vote for MJ why? He does not say anything on his ads, we have no idea what he stands for, and residents in his district (f) cannot wait to get rid of him. Now why again did you say I should vote for MJ??? Better yet, what is his IQ score?

  3. Doug says:

    I just got a robo call that started out “greetings fellow Democrat” and trashed Ronald Green for refusing to pay his taxes and exhorting all Democrats not to vote for Ronald Green. It did not say who to vote for or who it was from. Wonder who was spending money on that?

  4. Joe says:

    I just recieved a robo-call that began with, “Hello, fellow Democrat, Did you know that Ronald Green doesn’t pay his taxes? We cannot allow a Democrat who does not pay his taxes to be City Comptroller.”
    “Hello fellow Democrat” my ass. This call had GOP opposition research all over it. I will vote for Green as a matter of principle, at this point.

  5. John says:

    I will wager in an IQ test MJ trounces the other two. Better yet have them test their skills on excel which given that they want to be CFO for Houston should be no problem.

  6. Jewell Frances says:

    I have received that same call and started doing research and found this.

    “Commentary ran into some Dem leaders last night and they weren’t too happy with Green about this. They think that this sinks Green’s chances. It is going to be very difficult to get elected to be the city’s fiscal watchdog while having IRS issues hanging over you.”

    http://camposcommunications.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/going-negative-and-dueling-pachangas/

  7. Absurd!!!! says:

    This smells of Sue Lovell and her friends trying to deny Ronald Green a spot in the Controllers office. I have heard rumblings within the party that she is intent on destroying Councilmember Green. I hope Ron fights back, but I am afraid that he doesn’t have the funds to do so.

  8. Pingback: Eight days out: Spending on voter outreach by At Large candidates – Off the Kuff

  9. Sick of the Negativity says:

    Still going GREEN!

  10. Pingback: Comparing Controller’s races – Off the Kuff

  11. Pingback: Precinct analysis: The City Controller race – Off the Kuff

  12. Pingback: Eight days out finance reports, Green and Khan – Off the Kuff

Comments are closed.