Campaign Ammo April 2017 Financials Breakdown -

[Kosher Dill]

Dumping all these here before they get lost in the main Wu thread. Mods, feel free to move/delete if not appropriate.
Original FEC raw data: http://docquery.fec.gov/showcsv/wpa17615/1157939.fec
My cleaned-up CSV files are attached to this post.

Donor breakdowns:

Spoiler: Public Servants

Daniel Goldner, Westford, MA - Acton-Boxborough Regional School District
Rebecca Schutzengel, San Jose, CA - Campbell Union High School District
Gary Montgomery, Olympia, WA - "city government". Wonder if he knows the Wern?
John Richards, Damascus, OR - Clackamas County (Oregon) Gov't
Ellen Armstrong, Columbus, OH - Columbus Metropolitan Library
Pam DiBona, Arlington, MA - Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Aron Schneider, Reston, VA - US Department of the Interior
Kyle Moody, Worcester, MA - Fitchburg State University
Heather Freeman, Lakeland, FL - Florida Polytechnic University
Alex Guthman, La Crescenta, CA - Glendale Unified School District
Kenneth Freeman, Boise, ID - Idaho State Liquor Division (?!)
Andrew Wilkins, Worcester, MA - Massachusetts Department of Transportation
Tancy Moore, Sacramento, CA - NOAA
Susan Robertson, Brooklyn, NY - NYC Office of Payroll Administration
Michael Bowman, Portland, OR - Portland State University
William Crosbie, Highland Park, NJ - Raritan Valley Community College
David Luetger, Downers Grove, IL - San Jose State University Research Foundation
Jonathan McDowell, Somerville, MA - Smithsonian Institution
Diana Weghorst, Sacramento, CA - State of California
Paula Cohen, Fort Lauderdale, FL - US Senate (retired aide)
Graham Lampa, Washington, DC - US Department of State
John Dellaporta, Los Angeles, CA - UCLA
Ian Perry, Berkeley, CA - UC Berkeley
Adam Feldhaus, Waterloo, IA - University of Northern Iowa
Ian Hiatt, Jericho, VT - University of Vermont Medical Center
Scott Wahlstrom, Jefferson, MA - Wachusett Regional School District
Kelly Osborn, College Park, MD - National Archives

The public servants employed directly by a state or federal government agency are bolded.

Spoiler: Attorneys

Marc Rockford, Bala Cynwyd, PA - Comcast
Frank Gerratana, Cambridge, MA - Fish & Richardson
Jon Bourgault, Boston, MA - John Hancock Life Insurance Co.
Sara Jones, Jamaica Plain, MA - Ropes & Gray LLP
Raymond Buso, Salem, MA - private practice
Alice Kim, New York, NY - Viacom
Magdalena Lopez, Dorchester, MA - Ross Silverman Snyder Tietjen LLP (paralegal)
Ilene Belinsky, Canton, MA - private practice
Thomas Johnson, Seattle, WA - Cascadia Law Group (paralegal)
Karl Wenger, Stone Grzegorek & Gonzalez LLP (paralegal)

Spoiler: Unusual/Unlikely Donors

John Holzer, Moreno Valley, CA - part of an elevator workers' union
Timothy Reedy, Yorktown, VA - Welder at Newport News Shipbuilding
James Shanley, Newburyport, MA - cook at Joppa Fine Foods
Adrienne Bosh, Miami Beach, FL - unemployed, gave $500
James Greco, New York, NY - unemployed, gave $100
Steven Theus, Elmont, NY - unemployed, gave $20
Rebekah Jensen, San Jose, CA - unemployed, gave $30
Jason Shapiro, Santa Fe, NM - unemployed, gave $100
Ngozi Robinson, Chicopee, MA - Baptist minister (?!?!)
Nancy Soja, Brookline, MA - unemployed experimental psychologist, gave $50
Kathryn Edwards, Renton, WA - executive director of the IGDA
Kelly Kasper, East Weymouth, MA - unemployed/disabled, gave $5
Eric Cooper, Quincy, MA - chef at Forage Restaurant
Jon Katayanagi, Martinez, CA - self-employed pest control guy
Quincy Fleming, Albuquerque, NM - "Badass Airline Pilot"

Spoiler: Internet & Culture

Wade Brainerd, South Portland, ME - Activision
Louis Livon-Bemel, San Francisco, CA - Apple
Dan Dunham, Irvine, CA - Blizzard
Anne Mitsoda, Kenmore, WA - DoubleBear Productions (indie game studio)
Levi Buchanan, Portland, OR -Electronic Arts
Thomas Baker, San Mateo, CA - Facebook
Matt Lee, Cambridge, MA - GitLab
Justin De Vesine, San Jose, CA - Google
Vicki Holland, Acton, MA - Google
Joshua Simmons, Petaluma, CA - Google
Bryan Klimt, Santa Clara, CA - Google
Nicholas Hanssens, San Francisco, CA - Google
Ram Dobson, Brooklyn, NY - Google
Brian Moore, Boston, MA - Google
Robert Butts, Brookline, MA - GSN Games (makers of the kind of phone games Wu enjoys)
Sophie Campbell, Rochester, NY - IDW (transgender artist of the Jem comic Wu shilled for)
Kathryn Edwards, Renton, WA - Executive Director, IGDA
Geoffrey Evans, Los Angeles, CA - Infinity Ward / Activision
Eric Rehmeyer, Kirkland, WA - Microsoft
Jack Banh, Kirkland, WA - Microsoft
Jacob Stinnett, Chicago, IL - Mozilla
Bryant Luk, Round Rock, TX - PayPal
Brian Behlendorf, San Francisco, CA - The Linux Foundation
Michael Margolis, San Francisco, CA - Twitter
Jason Harris, San Francisco, CA - Twitter
Barbara Shaurette, Austin, Tx - Vox Media Group
Matt Newcomb, Los Angeles, CA - Walt Disney
Neil Anderson, New York, NY - Yahoo

 

[Jaded Optimist]

So in the Lolcow thread it was pointed out that one donor had listed that he works at Simon Frasier University. Since this is a large university near Vancouver B.C, it was strange that his address was listed in Phoenix Arizona.
meet jeffrey truman

I entered the PhD program in mathematics education because I enjoy mathematics and I wish to continue to share my knowledge of and enthusiasm about mathematics with others as well as develop more effective ways to do this. My teaching assistant work has already introduced me to teaching mathematics to others. I am very glad when they understand the concepts they are trying to learn, and even more so when they start to enjoy mathematics and wish to continue learning more about it. In fact, this is the aspect of my previous graduate program (in pure mathematics) which I enjoyed the most, which is what led me to consider a program focused on mathematics education.

My starting view of mathematics education was that it should improve students’ logical reasoning and problem-solving skills, as well as developing a sense of when others’ reasoning is valid or flawed, in addition to teaching the explicit skills for the course, though I am expecting some changes and refinements in this through the program. I seek to prepare students for using mathematics in STEM fields, in addition to simply having mathematical literacy in daily life, and encourage them to follow any interest and ability in mathematics regardless of any contrary cultural or societal assumptions. In the graduate program, I would like to further understand the best way to accomplish these goals.

I can't see any evidence of them living or working in the states since 2013. I'm assuming that they can still donate to Wu if they are an American citizen though, correct?

 

[sikotik]

This was pretty much what I expected. Most of the people are out of state virtue signalers.

 

[Yellow Yam Scam]

Can we get a percentage breakdown of what expenses went towards? How much for equipment, meals, etc.?

 

[Maiden-TieJuan]

So in the Lolcow thread it was pointed out that one donor had listed that he works at Simon Frasier University. Since this is a large university near Vancouver B.C, it was strange that his address was listed in Phoenix Arizona.
meet jeffrey truman
View attachment 206187


I can't see any evidence of them living or working in the states since 2013. I'm assuming that they can still donate to Wu if they are an American citizen though, correct?

Foreign nationals, nope. Foreign national with green card or citizen working out of country, yep.

 

[Tookie]

Surprised Kengle isn't on there.

 

[Kosher Dill]

Can we get a percentage breakdown of what expenses went towards? How much for equipment, meals, etc.?

@Shenmue3 made an Excel sheet out of it that calculates all this, and summarized the expenses:
https://kiwifarms.net/threads/brianna-walker-wu-john-walker-flynt.23639/page-829#post-2201037

I summarized it even further:

"Advertising/Production" is what I called anything involving actual art supplies or mailing.
"Travel" is all vehicles and hotels.
"Software" is that expensive NGP VAN package which I factored out separately so as not to skew the results.

 

[AnOminous]

Quincy Fleming, Albuquerque, NM - "Badass Airline Pilot"

You might remember that donor Quincy Fleming (a woman) was accused by John of "mansplaining" in a now deleted tweet, because John was being aggressively stupidly wrong about something airplane-related.

This stupid troon insults his own donors.

 

[Kosher Dill]

You might remember that donor Quincy Fleming (a woman) was accused by John of "mansplaining" in a now deleted tweet, because John was being aggressively stupidly wrong about something airplane-related.

This stupid troon insults his own donors.

And not only that, he claims "I fly a lot" even though his campaign travel was exclusively on trains

 

[stets]

@Shenmue3 made an Excel sheet out of it that calculates all this, and summarized the expenses:
https://kiwifarms.net/threads/brianna-walker-wu-john-walker-flynt.23639/page-829#post-2201037

I summarized it even further:
View attachment 206345

"Advertising/Production" is what I called anything involving actual art supplies or mailing.
"Travel" is all vehicles and hotels.
"Software" is that expensive NGP VAN package which I factored out separately so as not to skew the results.

Total expenditures were around $9,300. The $6K that was reimbursed to Frank is part of that $9.3K - it is not an additional expense. My theory is that Frank paid much of the original expenses for things like software, web design, travel, etc. out of his own pocket, and this was paid back once contributions began to come in. This happens all the time in the early days of fringe campaigns.

A lot of people of speculated that Frank was getting checks to reimburse unspecified expenses, and that these were basically graft. I don't believe that's accurate. It looks bad if you don't study this stuff, but makes sense when you've read hundreds of these things.

Others have suggested that she's using her campaign as a piggy bank. Maybe for some technology expenses, but it's pretty marginable stuff. Virtually every expense listed in this report is par for the course for political campaigns.

A lot of people have wondered about the "meeting potential voters" listed as a reason for out of state expenses like meals. That's because Frank is an idiot who has never managed campaign expenses before, and doesn't know how to properly report stuff. This may draw a letter from the FEC seeking clarification, but it won't go beyond that. If you run for office, you're going to have travel expenses to DC and New York for meetings and funraising. You are going to expense your hotels, travel, and meals. It happens - stop freaking out about it.

Frankly, I was expecting more questionable expenses, but it's pretty boring, typical stuff.

 

[Cubanodun]

This may draw a letter from the FEC seeking clarification, but it won't go beyond that. If you run for office, you're going to have travel expenses to DC and New York for meetings and funraising.

>Fundraising

thats the weird part, we know Wu is a vampire that hate to get outside, how she is going to get funds? skype calls?

 

[Kosher Dill]

Total expenditures were around $9,300. The $6K that was reimbursed to Frank is part of that $9.3K - it is not an additional expense. My theory is that Frank paid much of the original expenses for things like software, web design, travel, etc. out of his own pocket, and this was paid back once contributions began to come in.

You're absolutely right. Add up 561.91 + 284.75 + 2283.75 + 2971.64 and you get precisely 6102.05.
So Frank most likely paid for all the art supplies, food, travel, and the campaign software out-of-pocket, and the tech toys are the only real "piggy bank" item.

EDIT: made a new percentage breakdown to reflect this

 

[Dr. Merkwurdichliebe]

A lot of people of speculated that Frank was getting checks to reimburse unspecified expenses, and that these were basically graft. I don't believe that's accurate. It looks bad if you don't study this stuff, but makes sense when you've read hundreds of these things.

I've looked at a lot of campaign reports over the years, too. As I recall, in situations like this the spouse or the candidate would make a loan to the campaign, which would be reported as income, and would then be repaid when donations started coming in. I think that having your spouse write himself a check or a series of checks for 40 percent of the expenditures with no other documentation is going to raise eyebrows at the FEC, assuming they're paying much attention to Flynt/Wu's campaign.

 

[AnOminous]

I've looked at a lot of campaign reports over the years, too. As I recall, in situations like this the spouse or the candidate would make a loan to the campaign, which would be reported as income, and would then be repaid when donations started coming in. I think that having your spouse write himself a check or a series of checks for 40 percent of the expenditures with no other documentation is going to raise eyebrows at the FEC, assuming they're paying much attention to Flynt/Wu's campaign.

It depends on what the 40% is, though.

I actually think they're more likely to get nailed on some dumb technicality by just fucking something up than by the fact that the campaign is essentially bogus in the first place. And then it will be just enough to sting a bit but be collectable. About all I can see ending up worse is if John is just a complete shit to them.

 

[Holdek]

Surprised Kengle isn't on there.

What was it that he donated to Chris? I think Watermelon offered Dunkin' Donuts coupons or something, but Kengle offered a couple of cans of peanuts or some autistic shit.

 

[stets]

I've looked at a lot of campaign reports over the years, too. As I recall, in situations like this the spouse or the candidate would make a loan to the campaign, which would be reported as income, and would then be repaid when donations started coming in. I think that having your spouse write himself a check or a series of checks for 40 percent of the expenditures with no other documentation is going to raise eyebrows at the FEC, assuming they're paying much attention to Flynt/Wu's campaign.

The smart way to do it would have been for Briana to make a loan to her campaign, and then pay it back after contributions come in. Spouses are bound by contribution limits (currently $2,700 per election) and cannot make loans in excess of the maximum contribution amount allowed. The total amount Frank spent exceeded contributions limits and would not have been permitted to be recorded as a loan.

They could have obtained a bank loan to finance the early stage while avoiding contribution limits, but no reputable bank is going to loan money to fund a cartoon character's political campaign.

I agree with you that this looks really bad, and there was definitely a better way to do this. I doubt the FEC gives enough of a shit at this point to look at it. They're too busy investigating things like a Congressman who spent campaign money on Steam games and private school tuition and a former Congressman who obstructed justice while laundering $1.25 million to go after Wu.

Edited to add - It could be a potential problem is Frank ever had over $2700 of unreimbursed expenses, since that would violate contribution limits. @Kosher Dill has a better handle on the specific numbers than I do, and he may be able/willing to review to see if that ever occurred.

 

[Kosher Dill]

Edited to add - It could be a potential problem is Frank ever had over $2700 of unreimbursed expenses, since that would violate contribution limits. @Kosher Dill has a better handle on the specific numbers than I do, and he may be able/willing to review to see if that ever occurred.

Frank never took an individual disbursement greater than $2700, so it's unlikely he ever went over the mark. Unless he was doing something really weird like taking only partial reimbursement and leaving some debt still on the books, which seems unlikely. I'll check for sure later, but all indications are that Frank's kept his hands surprisingly clean so far.

 

[Kosher Dill]

In the name of due diligence, I charted out the campaign's cash flow in detail vs. expenditures. I confirmed for certain that Frank never went above the individual contribution limit at any point. One oddity is that he did take a partial reimbursement at one point - he was owed $1994.81 on 1/23/2017 but only took a disbursement of $1335.83. The campaign had more than enough cash on hand to pay him back in full, so I have no idea why he chose to do this.

It looks like they were probably using Frank's credit card for some of this stuff - we have clusters of charges on 12/23 and 1/23, so that's probably when the bill came due and they paid them all at once. Unless John really ate 6 meals on 1/23, that is

Someone with more expertise might be able to figure out what they spent their money on at Squarespace. Nothing seems to match up exactly with their pricing, but we know they bought the domain names, domain privacy, and hosting through them.

 

[Tookie]

It looks like they were probably using Frank's credit card for some of this stuff - we have clusters of charges on 12/23 and 1/23, so that's probably when the bill came due and they paid them all at once. Unless John really ate 6 meals on 1/23, that is

That's really not how they're supposed to be reporting expenditures if that is what they're doing. They should be reporting the actual date of each expenditure, even if it was payed via credit card, along with notations indicating what card it was charged to above a certain threshold. There's also some additional requirements for reporting the credit card balance itself as a debt/obligation.

 

[stets]

That's really not how they're supposed to be reporting expenditures if that is what they're doing. They should be reporting the actual date of each expenditure, even if it was payed via credit card, along with notations indicating what card it was charged to above a certain threshold. There's also some additional requirements for reporting the credit card balance itself as a debt/obligation.

This is definitely an issue that is a little squishy because it isn't very common, and I am not an election law attorney. Let me ask some election attorney friends how this should be reported, and I'll report back.

Edited to add: You're correct that this is typically how campaign credit card charges are generally reported. I don't know if that is necessary for that to be be done if it's a on a personal credit card. My suspicion is that you would want to include a memo for every disbursement that was paid by a third party, and include a memo in the repayment for what expenses the amount was for. Like I said above, this area of the law is unusual, so I'll have to do some research.