The Globe notes that, at the end of August, Andrea Silbert wrote her campaign a check for $25,000.
A curious move, IMHO. Did it really matter that much if her campaign account’s balance was $494,142.13, rather than $519,142.13, at the end of August? Isn’t the former enough to buy the ads she needs?
Also, why do it on August 29, rather than waiting three days ’til September 1 (when it would remain away from the prying eyes of reporters and bloggers ’til after the primary)? This way, it generates odd items like this one, and things like this at the Globe: “in a debate last week she said that her family of five is ‘basically underinsured.’ … So if she cant afford adequate medical care, her critics ask, where is all of this money coming from?”
Rookie mistake? Inside baseball that no one will care about? Other thoughts (with or without baseball-related metaphors)?
…since primary voters ARE the inside baseball crowd.
You are confusing two issues – campaign strategy and her honest assessment of her family’s income and what it buys. Of all the candidates for LG, she’s the one who willingly released her tax returns to show her family income. Tim didn’t want to do it because he’s a full-time lawyer and part-time public servant and Debbie didn’t want to do it because she’s loaded and doesn’t work.
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My guess that additional money completed a certain size media buy. From what I hear, it is a loan, not a draining of savings, and she has the guts to put a bit it up in order to win an election and continue her stellar and innovative public service career.
Tim readily agreed to release his tax returns when asked, after Andrea challenged the other candidates to do so. Tim has no problem with people knowing the particulars in his returns.
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Scott Ferson
Murray Campaign
Is that she wanted to be over th $500k mark at the filing. That or it’s a sign of commitment, showing voters (and donors) and she’s invested in her own candidacy.
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Either way, when you’re starting the bottom of the 9th there’s really no need to bring in a pinch hitter for your slugger who’s gone 4/4 with 3 RBI that night.
I’ve got it … let’s speculate!
Since there’s nothing much else to talk about anyway… < /sarcasm>
the $25 will cover staff expenses, allowing the remainder to be used on ad buys.
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I don’t think it matters whether she put it in before or after the deadline. Sure, she could have avoided a little speculations, but the figure is platry when compared to those invested by Gabrieli and Goldberg.
I would hardly call 25k self-financing. Deb Goldberg has put in 2.1; Chris Gabrieli about 8 million at this point… they’re self-financing.
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As to why she would do it, I think a lot of the responses on this thread are pretty accurate. Maybe she wanted to be over 500k, maybe she wanted to appear willing to pump in some cash before the deadline so others would contribute, maybe there was something (like staff expenses) that 25k would cover that she needed.
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Or, here’s this suggestion: Maybe the 25k loan is meant as a little insurance just in case she runs out of money. That way, if she needs it, there’s 25k to fall back on. She may not even spend it.
She is critical of Goldberg and her self-funded candidacy yet she pumps in $30,000 of her own money into hers.
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She rails against “career pols” and says they are part of the problem yet she raises $750,000 for John Kerry, who as far as I can tell is a career pol.
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She obviously doesn’t mean what she says but rather hopes that what she says will play well with the voters? That’s not leadership…that’s politics as usual.
If this had happened before the convention, it would have been a bigger story. But because it’s happening now during the din of everything else, it’s a non-story.
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Compared with Deb’s millions, this isn’t even worth talking about. Everyone wants to win.
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As another poster said, this is probably to cover expenses. Silbert has been by far the most frugal of all the LG candidates, and her monthly expenditures have been around 25K. She probably got some advice that that money could be better used on field, GOTV and media was worth it.
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And from what I’ve seen, it’s going well. I received literature dropped on my doorstep this weekend, and while I was watching the Today Show this morning, I saw an equal number of Andrea and Deb ads, but curiously no Tim ads.
Good catch, and an interesting item to chatter about, but I wouldn’t call this move “self-funding”.
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During this race, Silbert has raised and spent about $1 million. She put $5k of her own money early on. And now she’s putting in $25k. Regardless of whether it’s a $25k loan to the campaign or another donation, she will have put in about 3% of her total. Hardly “self-funding”. It would be like saying Deb is relying on individuals to support her. Or that Tim is counting on donations from Northampton to fuel his race.
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If Silbert misses out by a point or two, we’ll all look back and say she should’ve taken out $75k. And if she pulls this off by a small margin, the $25k will go down as one of the all time brilliant moves in MA politics.
at an 0-2 count against Johan Santana, deciding to take a swing and try to push it to right field. her option is to take a pitch or 2, work the count, but what the hell.