Staffer pay reveals ’08 Dem focus

A review of campaign spending on staff salaries suggests that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) are less focused on South Carolina than they are on other early primary and caucus states.

Black voters are expected to make up about half of the voters in South Carolina’s Democratic Party, which may have persuaded Clinton and Edwards to concentrate their resources in other states, such as Nevada, which has a strong union presence and growing Hispanic population.  

{mosads}Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) spent $150,000 on staff salaries in South Carolina, according to second-quarter finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). In total, Obama’s campaign spent $480,000 in the Palmetto State between April 1 and June 30. His campaign has also opened two offices in the state.

Clinton spent $38,000 on staff salaries and $120,000 overall in South Carolina, according to FEC data. A review of her campaign records shows that she paid only seven staffers based in South Carolina. By contrast, she employed 30 staffers living full-time in New Hampshire and 25 staffers based in Nevada.

Clinton spokesman Phil Singer disputed that conclusions about Clinton’s commitment to South Carolina could be drawn from spending data.

“We have a strong commitment to South Carolina and making our case to the voters there,” said Singer. “We’re running an aggressive operation and taking nothing for granted. Our operation is constantly growing as we make our case to as many voters as we can.”

Records also indicate that Edwards, who was born in South Carolina and is the only top-tier candidate from the South, has also decided to focus elsewhere.

Edwards spent nearly $11,000 on two full-time campaign staffers in the state that will hold the earliest primary in the South, according to his second-quarter report. In total, Edwards spent $221,000 in South Carolina between the end of March and the beginning of this month, less than half of what Obama spent.

FEC reports are snapshots at a given moment before an election and do not reflect how campaigns will expand and evolve.
Polls from South Carolina suggest a tight race between Clinton and Obama. Of the five most recent surveys, Clinton finished first in three with Obama winning the other two. An average of polls in South Carolina at realclearpolitics.com has Clinton at 29.5, Obama at 26.8 and Edwards with 15.3 percent.

Bob Biersack, an FEC spokesman, cautioned that spending data can be misleading because staff working temporarily in a primary state sometimes report home addresses in other states.

“The location of a payee, someone who got a payment from a campaign, doesn’t necessarily indicate he did activity in that
state,” said Biersack.

An example of this appears on Sen. Sam Brownback’s (R-Kan.) campaign finance report. Brownback reported spending over $30,000 on staff in Hawaii, a surprise to anyone who is following Republican primary campaigns. As it turns out, Jason Jones, one of Brownback’s organizers in Iowa, has a home in Hawaii, a Brownback official explained.

Clinton’s campaign spent $1.7 million in Utah, another surprising revelation. But the explanation turns out to be mundane: Her campaign pays its payroll taxes to an IRS office based in Utah.

Nevertheless, salary and spending data provide a window into the size of each campaign’s organization in the various primary states.

Spending records show clearly that, at this early stage in the campaign, the Democratic field considers Iowa considerably more important than other states hosting primaries.

Earlier this year a Clinton campaign document surfaced suggesting that the candidate consider skipping the Iowa caucuses and save resources for Feb. 5, 2008, when perhaps more than 20 states will hold primaries. Clinton’s spending shows she has rejected this advice resoundingly.

Disbursement records reveal that Clinton’s campaign spent $431,000 to employ more than 70 staffers in New Hampshire. The number of Clinton staff listing residences in Iowa is more than twice the number based in Iowa, and almost three times the number living in Nevada. Overall, Clinton’s campaign spent more than $835,000 in Iowa since the end of March.

FEC data show that Obama spent $910,000 on staff living expenses in Iowa. Altogether, he spent $2.2 million in the Hawkeye State during the second quarter. Obama has also poured money into New Hampshire, which will host the first primary in the nation after the Iowa and Nevada caucuses. His campaign spent $391,000 on salaries for staff living in New Hampshire and more than $1 million on all expenses in the state.

Obama’s campaign spent significantly less in Nevada, which will host a caucus between the contests in Iowa and New Hampshire. Obama doled out $105,000 on staff salaries in the Silver State. His total expenses topped $295,000.

The number of campaign offices Obama has opened around the country reflects his campaign’s view of the strategic importance of various states. Obama has opened 29 offices in Iowa, six offices in New Hampshire, three offices in Nevada, and two offices in South Carolina.  

The number of offices in each state roughly corresponds to the amount of money Obama has spent on salaries and other expenses.

Obama has also opened two offices in California and one each in New York and Florida.

Between April 1 and June 30, Edwards spent $333,000 on 68 staffers based in Iowa, according to his public campaign finance records. Overall, he spent $528,000 in the state.

Edwards employed 24 staff in New Hampshire at a cost of $107,000 in the second quarter.

In Nevada, Edwards spent $67,000 for the services of 15 staffers.

Both Clinton and Edwards appear to have made Nevada a higher political priority than South Carolina. Black voters will have less of an influence in Nevada. The state, however, is known for the political strength of organized labor. It also has a large Hispanic population. Hispanics made up 23 percent of the population in July of 2004, according to the Census Bureau.

A similar analysis could not be applied to the Republican front-runners — former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. That is because Giuliani, McCain, and Romney paid nearly all of their staff salaries through a single address, masking the place of residence for many staffers.