News: Sarah Palin's PAC still not staffed up

Politico: Sarah Palin's PAC still not staffed up

The expressed purpose of so-called leadership PACs like Sarah PAC is to support likeminded candidates through direct contributions (Palin’s PAC contributed $65,000 to candidates and $18,700 the Young America’s Foundation in the first half of the year) and travels to campaign events. But they’re also commonly used by presidential hopefuls to build the nucleus of a campaign infrastructure before officially entering the race, in part by assembling staffs and building donor lists.

In the first half of the year, Sarah PAC spent heavily on such prospecting, paying $311,000 to its primary direct mail vendor HSP Direct of Herndon, Va.—most likely to rent lists and put together mailings. Another $146,000 went to a second mail firm, RMS Direct of Frederick, Md., for associated costs, while $6,000 went to Formost Graphic Company of Rockville, Md., for thank you letters and postage.

"Sarah PAC did a great deal of prospecting, and in those expenditures, there is a lot of it that went for lists,” explained Crawford. “And as a result, our contributor base continues to grow at a very fast pace.”

Overall, the PAC raised $1.7 million, which Crawford said came from more than 24,000 contributors.

Sarah PAC also paid $94,000 to online fundraising vendors Upstream Communications and Campaign Solutions for costs associated with Internet fundraising.

Other notable payments include at least $19,000 in costs related to Palin’s heavily scrutinized bus tour this summer, including:

$13,700 to Fast Signs of Antioch, Tenn., to wrap the bus with a patriotic-themed cover featuring the Declaration of Independence and a huge picture of her face.
$14,600 to Passcode Creative of Franklin, Tenn., which produced the promotional video touting the bus tour.
$3,600 to Jonathan Frierson of Cincinnati, who drove the bus
$2,500 to the Key Bridge Marriott in Rosslyn, Va., where she and her family stayed before embarking on the tour.
$1,900 to the Residence Inn in Portsmouth, N.H., where her entourage stayed during a swing through the nation’s first-primary state
Palin’s March trip to Israel is also reflected on the report, which shows the following payments:
$5,800 to a company called Sar-El Tours and Travel for a “tour of holy land”
$5,000 to Top Secure Ltd. for security and transportation while the Palin’s were in Israel
$650 to an Israeli photographer
$550 to Michelle Tisha for advance in Israel