Doolittle: Under Investigation and in The RedHard times. From The Sacramento Bee:
Rep. John Doolittle’s cachet with big Washington, D.C., campaign financiers seems to have plummeted in the aftermath of the FBI’s April 13 raid on his Oakton, Va., house, and the eight-term Roseville Republican heads toward the 2008 election season with his campaign still in debt and receipts on the decline.Meanwhile, the campaign of Democrat Charlie Brown, who came within 3 points of defeating Doolittle in November, is gaining steam. Brown’s campaign raised almost twice as much as Doolittle’s in the last three months and ended the six-month mark with a net cash balance of $251,000. Doolittle posted $32,250 in debts.
Doolittle’s biggest expense during the three-month period was $50,000 in fundraising payments to Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions, a company owned by his wife and operated out of the couple’s house….
Even with the hefty campaign payments to Julie Doolittle’s company, Sierra Dominion still was owed more than $76,000 in commissions from the 2006 race.
The Doolittle campaign’s second largest expense was $30,000 to defense attorney David Barger’s law office, bringing the campaign’s attorney’s fees for defending the congressman in the last year to more than $130,000.