The decision I had to make was to risk losing this seat from a carefully coordinated and perfectly timed attack coordinated by a biased journalist and insiduous, non-stop attacks by my opponent, or stand up to them by matching their burst of extra late campaign ad spending to hold our own in a campaign where so many volunteers and contributors had sacrificed enormously for 15 months to elect me to succeed Ray LaHood in serving you in Congress. [...]
I had to go against every fiber of my being in going out on a limb financially by $80,000 to keep from being overwhelmed by these coordinated attacks on top of the Obama tsunami.
What’s screwy about this appeal (besides the abundance of run-on sentences)? For one, Schock outspent his Democratic rival by over $1.5 million. Sure, the DCCC added Callahan to its list of Emerging Races in June, but for Schock to suggest that he was under siege by Callahan or the national party is a joke.
So is the timeline Schock sketches for his supporters. As the congressman-elect tells it, he resisted the urge to put his own skin in the game until his opponent’s relentless attacks at the tail end of the campaign forced his hand. But FEC disclosure records tell a different story. Schock dropped $50,000 into his own campaign fund in September of last year, well before the general election race even got underway. Going against every fiber of your being, Aaron? Hardly.
Equally interesting is Schock’s desire to recoup $80,000 of his own dollars. The $50,000 he spent last September was his only personal contribution. He didn’t donate any money to his leadership PAC, either. Where the extra $30,000 comes from is unclear.
UPDATE: One possibility is that Schock isn't referring to an $80,000 personal contribution (though the language he uses certainly suggests that), but rather $80,000 in last-minute spending that exceeded the campaign's cash-on-hand. That seems unlikely, however, as the "pre-general" report he filed with the FEC -- which includes receipts up to October 28 -- showed him with $266,000 cash-on-hand. And none of the supplementary filings issued by Schock's campaign between that date and November 4 show a loan. Is it possible Schock spent that $266,000 plus an extra $80,000 in the six days prior to the election? I suppose. But there's no paper trail to prove it at the moment.
Mark (not verified) on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 17:12
The paper trail would be there if the scenario you speak of at the end of the post was a reality. A loan of 80K near the end of the campaign would have, under federal law, been reported within 24 hours and would show up on those reports.
Josh Kalven on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 17:18
But could they have overspent in those last few days and now owe their vendors $80,000?
If that's the case, it's still doesn't reflect particularly well on Schock's management of his campaign.
I guess we'll find out when the Post-General reports are filed on 12/4.
chipolcon (not verified) on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 19:14
I don't really care about the particulars of young Congressman (elect) Shock's campaign loan. What is important is that he is an unrepentent Reagan Republican at a time when all the Reagan economic initiatives have been soundly repudiated by the electorate. The young Congressman needs to understand that his political hero and his philosophy are dead and gone. If he is going to survive in a Blue State that just happens to be the home of the newly elected Democratic President he is going to have to take a moderate approach to governing. If he continues to talk about supply side economics, saber rattling foreign policy (selling nukes to Taiwan) and being "targeted" by Obama and the Democrats he will not be long for Washington. Just wait until the 2010 remap young man and see what that shiney new congressional district looks like with thousands of more Democrats in it or worse, when you are mapped out of a district entirely.
Philosophe Forum on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 20:32
The state is losing a CD during the next reorganization. Schock is the junior guy so the GOP will probably sacrifice him. I was hoping we could finally lose Shimkus. I still cannot believe people actually like these two!
ALISON, MPA
http://philosopheforum.blogspot.com/
"Responsible Leadership Serving the Public Trust"
Brian G (not verified) on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 14:27
Check out the archives at pundit.blogpeoria.com or at his old site to see how Mr. Schock plays fast and loose with campaign regulations. At to the chipolcon's statements concerning Schock's extreme ideology, remember this, Schock is the inventor of the Obama "socialist" meme at the G.O.P. day at the state fair that the Right Wing Noise manchine trumpted so much this last fall.
Josh Kalven on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 18:12
It's true, Brian. Schock was definitely ahead of the curve on the "socialist" meme.
Let's not forget, also, that his campaign manager suggested at one point that he was the Barack Obama of the 18th CD race and that he recently showed up on MSNBC talking about how helpful it is to have a president from his home state.
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