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| Inside the 2010 Senate campaigns
A look at the people behind Utah Sen. Bob Bennett and challenger Mark Shurtleff, state attorney general. The Bennett campaign: Consulting firm: The Potomac Group Owner: Greg Hopkins Past projects: Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. s first election, Bennett s re-election 1998 and 2004 Identified employees: Andy Stephenson, Jim Bennett Paid in 2009*: $350,000 Purpose: salaries and minor office expenses
Consulting firm: Guidant Strategies Owner: Jason Powers Past projects: Shurtleff s re-election 2008, state senate races Identified employee: Jessica Fawson Paid in 2009*: $102,000 Purpose: salaries, fund-raising, polls, Web hosting
* as of Sept. 30
Republicans Tim Bridgewater, Cherilyn Eagar, James Williams Democrat Sam Granato
Source: interviews, FEC reports |
Washington » Campaigning for high federal office has become a sophisticated business, where raw data and political intel are treasured, where fundraising never stops and where candidates often hand over the reins to professionals.
Utah Sen. Bob Bennett and his chief Republican rival, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, have hired outside consulting firms to manage their 2010 Senate races.
And unlike most campaigns in Utah, these are run like private businesses -- very private.
Bennett's camp refuses to disclose the pay of its employees -- including the senator's son and campaign spokesman, Jim Bennett. The organization also won't reveal even the names of some of its workers.
Shurtleff's campaign goes further -- combining the costs of staff, polling and fundraising under the auspices of the firm. This shields virtually all operational details of the campaign from public view.
"While it appears candidates on the federal level can do this, the question is 'should they?'" said Dave Levinthal, spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, a D.C.-based organization that tracks campaign money. "It definitely limits the amount of information people can find out about how this campaign is being run."
That's the point, says Jim Bennett.
"Our opponents don't know who is working for us and what we are up to," he said. "We consider that an advantage."
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Bennett's camp » Since 1998, Bennett's re-election efforts have been spearheaded by The Potomac Group, a consulting firm created by his former chief of staff, Greg Hopkins.
Bennett paid the Potomac Group more than $790,000 to run his 2004 campaign. In that race, he faced no Republican challenger and ended up winning the general election with 69 percent of the vote.
This time, with four Republican challengers, Bennett has boosted his fundraising and his payments to campaign staffers. The senator has paid the Potomac Group almost $350,000 as of the end of September.
"We recognized from the outset that we had to take this reelection really seriously," Jim Bennett said.
Hopkins calls himself the campaign's "lead consultant," while the title of campaign manager goes to Andy Stephenson, the son of state Sen. Howard Stephenson, often a critic of Utah's two senators.
The only other employee Hopkins would identify is the senator's son and he wouldn't say how much anyone is paid. Contrast that with Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch's 2006 race where campaign manager Dave Hansen received $10,000 a month and every staffer was identified by name, address and pay.
Hopkins argues the public has a right to know how a campaign operates but that right doesn't extend to personnel. He said the campaign has a real advantage by concealing the number of people who are paid to canvass neighborhoods and where those people live.
But Shurtleff's lead consultant ,Jason Powers, said he doesn't feel like he is at any sort of disadvantage.
"I don't care how many people they employ," he said. "In my mind there are so many other things that are more relevant to the campaign than how much money Bob Bennett is wasting on employees."
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Shurtleff's camp » Powers owns Guidant Strategies, which managed Shurtleff's 2008 state campaign, the fundraising for his state political action committee and now his run for Senate.
His only full-time employee is Jessica Fawson, Shurtleff's campaign manager. Powers would not disclose salaries.
He touts Guidant Strategies as a one-stop consulting shop that combines advertising, polling, fund-raising and campaign strategy.
He bills Shurtleff at the end of the month for one lump sum, which makes it impossible to determine how much is spent on any activity.
So far Powers has been paid or is owed $66,000 for the Senate race. Shurtleff has directed another $36,000 to Powers through his state-based political action committee for "fundraising event management."
Unlike Bennett's campaign, Powers said he isn't seeking a competitive edge by combining the expenses.
"From a private business standpoint, it is just easier for us to put it all into one invoice," he said, comparing it to the government outsourcing projects to a private company.
Powers said he doesn't want to pay the accounting costs of breaking out each item and dismisses the notion that the public should have the right to see how the campaign functions.
"The things that are supposed to be disclosed, we do it and we think we are doing it the right way," he said.
Hopkins disagrees, calling the combining of campaign costs "a shell game" and "cynical."
The money Bennett's campaign gives to the Potomac Group goes only to salaries and a few day-to-day office expenses. Everything else from fund-raising to opposition research, the industry term for digging up dirt on opponents, is itemized on campaign disclosure reports.
"We would never inflate the retainer Potomac Group gets from the campaign to cover things like opposition research, polling or advertising," Hopkins said. "That is something the public has a right to know."
Not legally. About half of the states require some sort of "sub vendor" reporting for firms that receive lump sums as a way to track the money spent on campaigns. But the federal government has no such rule and neither does Utah.
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Follow the money » Still, Anthony Corrado, a campaign finance expert at Maine's Colby College said it was "odd" for a campaign to hire an all-purpose firm such as Guidant Strategies.
"That does make it very difficult to sort out exactly where the money is going and what it is being spent on," he said.
The former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, Michael Toner, said campaigns that operate in this fashion are taking advantage of "a hole in the FEC reporting regime."
Federal candidates have to identify any expenditure over $200, but they are not required to break down how consultants or firms spend big monthly retainers, even if they sub-contract out to other companies, said Toner, who was nominated by President George W. Bush.
Under the law, each candidate must determine what he or she feels is ethical to report to the public. In the Senate race in Utah, the two biggest campaigns have reached different conclusions.
"The public has an interest in where the money is being spent and where the money is being contributed from and we understand that," Powers said. "But these are not public tax dollars."
