What Did NCGOP Spend Donors’ Money On?

RALEIGH – Of all the postmortems to do after the election, the NCGOP should be first on the list. Where did they spend the money raised from party supporters? Well, the industry of elections seems to be quite healthy judging by the expenditure reports.

Much of the spending is nonsensical, and the information also confirms the decided lack of effort to defend Justice Barbara Jackson.

Check out these highlights compiled by the Haymaker:

  • $330,000 to the Florida GOP.  
  • Nearly $100K in payroll expense for someone named Marissa Ranieri.  That’s through October 20.  We can’t find any sort of internet footprint tying anyone by that name to the NCGOP.  She doesn’t show up on the staff listing on the NCGOP’s LinkedIn page.  There does not appear to be a publicly available listing of current party staff.  (Call the office, even after hours, and you get an answering service.  No extension directory to work through.) We did happen to find a baby registry page for someone in Raleigh named Marissa Ranieri who is apparently expecting on November 21. 
  • A whopping $825 in October to reimburse Barbara Jackson for direct mail design.  (That’s the only entry we could find regarding Jackson.)  To put that in perspective, the party spent $1837.01 on car rentals.   
  • A fee of $134,436.68 to Persuasion LLC of Raleigh for “consulting.”  Ray Martin, a former aide to Phil Berger, is the LLC’s registered agent. 
  • A fee of $90,500 to America Rising, a DC-area based “opposition research” group.
  • A fee of $166,000 to Causeway Solutions of Louisiana, for “consulting.”
  • A fee of $109,237.66 to Florida-based Consensus Mediafor “coordinated party expenditures.”
  • A fee of $96,917.50 to Consilium Connect of Raleigh for “fundraising consulting.”
  • $27,000 to Direct Edge of Tennessee for “direct mail design.”
  • $25,000 to Nelson Dollar for House.
  • $112,125 to Pennsylvania-based Harper Polling for “coordinated research.”
  • $40,103.99 to i360 of Baltimore, MD for “data management.”
  • $66,250 to Adcock for House.
  • Majority Strategies of Jacksonville, FL: $175,475.81 for “digital advertising” and $136,606.84 for “direct mail design.”
  • Malleus Political Strategies of Apex: $6,249.86 for “opposition research”
  • Meeting Street Research of Charleston, SC:  $429,500 for “coordinated party expenditures” plus $177,000 for “research”
  • Metro Productions of Raleigh: $55,356.50 for direct mail for Nelson Dollar
  • The Mike Causey Campaign ????  Apparently, it received $240,000 from the party.  (Causey was not on any ballot on Tuesday.)

The list goes on and on here, but it’s fair to say that a lot of people made a lot of money for a net losing effort. Remember this the next time the Party asks you for money; your money might be going to Florida, or to someone not even on the ballot.

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