Thought it was time to get the ongoing spending habits of Adrian Smith up for everyone’s consideration.
PAGE 1
Right off you see the totals spent by Smith’s office. To put in perspective:
- He spent $18,613.45 less than he did last quarter.
- He spent another $20,926.57 on postage for Franked Mail.
- There was $13,358.33 more spent on travel, more than double what was spent last quarter.
PAGE 2
This page shows that Smith spent $16,755.50 for postage on his second mass mailing. That was the one where he claimed he was “taking the lead” on alternative energy (and specifically ethanol) issues in Congress. Of course, he hadn’t done anything to demonstrate that claim in reality.
His Chief of Staff, Jeff Shapiro, gets a pretty nice salary: $10,000 a month, which is nearly DOUBLE what anyone else gets. Must be nice!
Other things noticed on this page:
- When the Grand Island staffer, Alex Straatman, took a flight from Omaha to DC, the cost was $214.30. When Jeff Shapiro took a DC to Omaha flight (so, same destinations), the cost was $626.29. That’s about at 292% difference.
PAGE 3
This continues the Travel list of expenses.
There was $700.29 was spent for someone to fly from DCA to SBL, round trip between 2/8 and 2/12. Then another $652.29 was spent for the same round trip from 2/18 to 2/26. SBL is the code for an airport in Bolivia. Either these are typos (which I doubt) or someone went to South America twice. Never hearing about anything to do with South America, I’m wondering what the purpose for this was?
Also, the pattern continues for Shapiro to be credited with taking the more expensive flights from DC to Nebraska. Hope he’s not traveling First Class or even Business Class at our expense!
PAGE 4
We see the last of the Travel expenses. The only thing that jumped out was a 2-day car rental for $208.53. Must have been one hell of a car to rent, because that’s a LOT to spend on a car rental!
I was interested in how much was actually spent on cars and gas. There were the totals:
Gasoline = $633.77
Private Auto Mileage = $2,970.84
Car Rental = $621.67
2007 GMAC Acadia Lease = $1,736.40
TOTAL = $ 5,962.68
The start of the Rent, Communication, Utilities list starts. Not much stands out, other than the fact they list payments to 4 different telecommunications companies.
PAGE 5
The list continues, and we see payments going to Charter Communications for “utilities”. Are they cable and internet? And I though the reason there were so many telecommunications companies was internet and phone for all the offices, including DC. However, we so the charges for DC are clearly indicated.
Finally, if Charter covers cable, then it’s interesting to see on this page a payment to Dish Network for 5/1 to 6/30 in the amount of $379.65.
I don’t know what any of that means, but it’s rather fascinating. I’d think it would be cheaper to find ways to bundle expenses under as few service providers as possible. That’s what most people do, and as a result, they get discounts on the fees.
PAGE 6
The Printing and Reproduction sections comes up, and as with the First Quarter, we see that Smith again sent a lot of money to Targeted Creative Communcations, the partisan Republican “persuasion” firm that has ties with Karl Rove:
Town Hall Phone Calls = $4,172.79
Advertising = $6,754.95
That’s a total of $10,927.74 paid to Targeted Creative Communications.
That’s in addition to the $25,116 paid to them last quarter.
And notice that they were used to do some of Smith’s Town Hall phone calls. Those are the calls where they dial up specific constituents, invite them to join in, they listen to Smith talk about what a great job he’s doing, and then they can ask questions - but only after getting filtered through a staffer first.
And just what would they be “advertising”, that would cost nearly $6,800??
This just continues to show Smith’s desire to CREATE an image with the right people doing it for him, rather than EARNING an image through real actions. And I continue to protest the fact that a partisan firm known for using the Karl Rove politics of “persuasion” through smoke and mirrors is getting our taxpayer dollars. It’s just not right.
PAGE 7
Only one thing stands out on this page.
Under Supplies and Materials, Jeff Shapiro is noted as receiving reimbursement for “Leased Auto Expense”. It gives the date of 4/19 and the cost was $552. I’m sure it had to be legit, but it is interesting.
PAGE 8
One thing that I will credit Smith for (even though these things occur far and few between) is that so far he has not spent a great deal of money on Food & Beverage for Meetings and Bottled Water. I’ve seen the listings for other members of Congress, and some will spend thousands each quarter. Smith does hold back on that, at least.
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In the Mass Mailings section, it shows that Smith sent out a total of 78,403 pieces of mass mail. This indicates he most likely targeted who received the second glossy report of his (hence, the reason for hiring “Targeted” Creative Communications for the job). The cost for printing the mass mailing didn’t appear in this report, but it was sent out near the end of the reporting period. It may show up in the next report, along with the cost for the third mailing.
4 comments:
Where do you get that document?
Call the Clerk of the House @ 202-226-5200. Tell them you'd like to get a copy of the Statement of Disbursements. The 1st and 2nd quarter is out (as I've reported), and the 3rd Quarter report they said should be done in another couple weeks.
If I took a critial look at your check book, I bet I would find some questionable expenditures too.
Ah, but that would imply that a private citizens finances are, somehow, pubic, wouldn't it? That is a very childish and extremely ignorant claim.
My guess is "Anonymous" (from Georgia) doesn't believe in accountability or how their tax dollars are spent by their members of Congress. What a pity.
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