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North Carolina Republican says Fundraising Firm "Screwed Me"
Dr. Ada Fisher doesn't have much good to say about BMW Direct, the Washington political firm that raised money on behalf of her 2006 bid for a North Carolina House seat.
"They sort of -- what shall I say? -- screwed me," Fisher said in a recent interview.
BMW Direct raised more than $400,000 for Fisher during the last election cycle, but only about $30,000 made it back to her to use in her campaign against U.S. Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC). Sound familiar?
Fisher complained that she never understood where the money raised on her behalf was going. She did not know that many key vendors used by BMW Direct were owned or operated by BMW staffers.
"They make it seem like each of these people is a private entity. But as you listen more and more and you get smarter, you realize they all work together," Fisher said.
BMW Direct and its staff operate a handful of companies out of a downtown Washington office building -- data processors, donor-list rentals, mail services, etc.
Fisher said BMW Direct urged her to "hire" its FEC compliance officer, Scott Mackenzie in Washington, to serve as her campaign treasurer, as he has done on other long-shot campaigns. But she refused, she said, and had a friend serve as treasurer.
So BMW Direct raised the money on her behalf, processed it and then doled out information and cash at its own pace.
Just a day or two before FEC filing deadlines, the firm would send Fisher large files of fundraising data for her to copy and submit under her name.
"We'd fill out the FEC forms based on the information they gave us. They would just tell us: This is how much money you raised," Fisher said.
Fisher's biggest complaint was that the fraction of money she did actually receive came too late. The firm never told her how much money to expect and was unable to plan for the fall campaign.
In late September 2006, she received her first check from BMW Direct for $5,000 and several similar checks followed in October.
"By that time, it was too late," she said.
But according to BMW Direct, Fisher's case was a unique.
Jordan Gehrke, BMW Direct's director of development, agreed that the fundraising efforts for Fisher were not as successful as those of other clients.
That's because she contacted the firm later than most candidates, after the election cycle was underway, Gehrke explained. That shortened the window of time for fundraising, which is critical for direct-mail efforts.
"In Fisher's case, we started eleven months before the election. She was an attractive candidate, and we believed her appeal would enable her to outperform the usual time window," Gehrke said in a written response to questions from TPMmuckraker.
"We firmly believed in her candidacy, and we think we would have been very successful if we had had another six months. For all kinds of reasons, fortune had its say, and things did not work out as we hoped."
The fees -- which in Fisher's case took up more than 90 percent of the total money raised -- are clearly explained to all clients from the outset, Gehrke said.
"We have a very clear contract. We take a lot of time going through this stuff with our clients yo make sure they understand the process....Nothing gets paid without the clients' approval," he said in an interview.
Even if a candidate loses a race, Gehrke said, the direct mail effort is still a valuable way to build a candidates name recognition and shape perceptions about the Republican Party.
"Is it worth it? Yes. If she doesn't win this year, maybe she ends up turning it into a state senate seat a few years later and then runs for congress again," Gehrke said. "Going into a district where Republicans have not traditionally competed and having a black doctor on the ballot is a way of saying this is not your father's Republican Party. This is what building a party is about. This is what expanding your coalition is about. The point is, it has value."
Josh
Zachary
Ha ha, "90%...it's our standard cut. Just check the fine print!" Genius marketing move there, champ.
July 7, 2008 8:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Everything BMW says here is probably true -- about changing the face of the Republican party, making this candidate more viable for a future race, ensuring candidate's review all contracts, etc. HOWEVER, that still doesn't explain WHY 90% of the proceeds still ended up with BMW. I'm sure overhead costs in direct mail operations are sizable, but 90% seems excessive. Any direct mail people out there?
July 7, 2008 8:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
So far I've seen photos on this site of two candidates fleeced by BMW; both were African-American women.
I'm sure this is just a coincidence, of course, and that there is no correlation between race, gender, and likelihood of fleecing. Also, I'm sure that BMW will be fleecing, say Lott and McConnell and DeMint in this cycle. Right? Yeah.
July 7, 2008 8:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was thinking the exact same thing. TPM staff - what do you say?
July 7, 2008 8:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
i dont think the first one was fleeced. since she had nothing but good things to say about bmw, i think she was aware that it, and her campaign, were nothing more than a scam destined to soak up money and disappear after november. i'd like to find out if she experienced any lifestyle changes after her loss.
July 8, 2008 7:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Like she would if she, say, owned one or two of the contractors BMW paid? That wouldn't surprise me a bit. Modern American Republican conservatives at work.
July 8, 2008 12:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
House race? of course -- it's subprime House financing!
July 7, 2008 8:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is this really just a case of BMW fleecing GOP dupes or does this go deeper?
Some of the sums are substantial and I can't help but wonder if some of this cash is getting passed on through back channels for notorious purposes.
Kind of like Karl Rove walkin-around money.
But anyway assuming this is just mainly a con on GOP fools and their money, we need a name for this free flowing cash.
My vote goes for fleece-backs. As in:
"We need to get BMW to collect some more fleece-backs to build up Karl's walkin-around reserves"
Just sayin...
July 7, 2008 8:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
for jfields above, here's is BMW Direct's client list (no big names here): http://www.bmwdirectmail.com/pages/about_us.asp
July 7, 2008 8:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
our motto:
July 7, 2008 9:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
"... a valuable way to build a candidates name recognition ..."
Yeah... I bet all these candidates want folks to know they are responsible for screwing them over.
If what BMW says is correct, it is noteworthy to realize that candidates care enough to throw away 90% of the money given to them. It helps to form a basis of their political career to follow.
What evil, self centered morons we elect into office... just a good thing MOST of them do not make it... IMHO
July 7, 2008 9:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
jb7 wrote I'm sure overhead costs in direct mail operations are sizable, but 90% seems excessive.
I don't know about mail, but I knew people in the 1970s who did telephone solicitation (for a fundraiser who worked for police/fireman type "charities"), and 90% would be in the ballpark of what their company kept. The worker got a percentage, the shift boss got a percentage, the manager got a percentage, the owner got a percentage. It was pretty sleazy.
The frontline workers I knew spent most of their share on drugs.
July 7, 2008 10:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Man, she got hosed.
July 8, 2008 12:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Why is it that when I read about how the BMW Direct/GOP direct mail scheme operates, I can't help but think of the documentary about Enron called "The Smartest Guys in the Room"?
July 8, 2008 1:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Makes me think about Abramoff and the Louisiana Coushatta.
Are the BMW guys College Republican alumni, by any chance? And at what point can we declare the GOP an organized crime syndicate?
July 8, 2008 1:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know the specifics of what they provide but I'm sure I could have saved her a ton of money.
The postal software alone costs $2500.00 with a $1200 a year renewal fee. That doesn't include the cost of the printing or the address printers.
The cost of the data records is probably somewhere around $80.00 a thousand (figure .08 an address)
The postal rate is going to vary depending on the marketing saturation and size dimensions of the piece mailed but would range anywhere from $.27 - $.42 for First Class per piece (Letter size, 1 ounce, or Presorted Standard rates @ up to 3.3 oz.
Then you'd have the phone calls from Robo Dialers are probably $22.00 a thousand with per minute charges around a nickel each for time spent talking with supporters.
Simple Yard Signs, political are probably somewhere around $3.00 - $4.00 ea. with stand, and that's a simple little 2 color (Red and Blue).
I'm sure with her being a Black Doctor, they'd try and throw her image on the signage and letters and what not, Four Color process ads and marketing is going to cost a few pennies a page, say maybe $30 - $40 a thousand with imprinting cost additional...
Then you have to subtract from all money raised credit card processing fees and transaction costs, say 2% of total right from top.
If they threw fundraising dinners and events, that would incur additional fees and room rental charges if not using the events facilities for food and beverages.
Anyhow, 90% is a bit much. I'm sure I could have put together a program to put this lady in office for some where around $200,000.00.
July 8, 2008 3:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Am I the only one that sees the disturbing parallels to the money-making scheme that was central to the movie (and play) "The Producers"?
"Don't be schtupid, be a schmarty, come and join the Republikan Parti!"
July 8, 2008 8:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
1. By fleacing Republicans, BMW Direct did us a favor of keeping even more of the lock-step, jack-booted thugs out of office.
2. I expect that if one were to examine the idiots that BMW Direct razed, one would find that the majority of them fell outside at least one standard deviation from the traditional/typical demographic profile of the Republican Party . . . Angry, old, white, rich corporists.
Yep. Just another example of Republicans eating their fodder for profit and gain. When will the poor and the inbred learn the GOP sees them as serfs to be exploited. The GOP guard the gates of glory passionately and everyone else need not apply.
July 8, 2008 8:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
The Republicans are eating their own. What a shame.
July 8, 2008 9:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Mark Hemingway at NRO's The Corner...
The reason for the scrutiny, according to Hemingway, is that the left is trying to undermine the GOP's advantage in direct mail by painting direct mail firms as "the used car salesmen of politics."
WRONG, Mr Hemingway. The Republicans InToto are well known as the Used Car Salesmen of politics. Their direct-mail schemers (Karl Rove's Bailiwick) are worse. They're the people who steal vehicles, and wheels and GPSs and satellite radios from the public and sell their stolen goods to the Used Car Salesmen.
Karls success/lack of morals has been how he can find the public blindspots and exploit them. The basic trick is mastered by a 5 yr old....so Rove is really not that smart. The basic trick is no different than crying wolf, or telling a neighbor that the back of his garage is on fire (when it isn't). In each case you find something that your target (the public) cannot immediately ascertain and prove for themselves. And Karl finds them all. Because of thoroughness and stick-to-it-iveness. Not because he is brilliant or knows stuff that nobody else knows. The fact that everybody cannot know everything and has blind spots, as a people, is the only power Rove ever had.
Not to mention, he never had to prove his manhood. He never had to go face a challenger. He never had to lay HIS (whatever) on the line. He's been hoodwinking and fleecing the rightwing voters of this country since the early 70s. He's brought us every NEW dirty trick since Watergate and he was even behind a few of them. And he has been ratfucking (and worse) to dems that whole time.
He has spawned many imitators and students. And they all spend their time smirking with the "you can't touch me" attitude.
July 8, 2008 10:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
You hit the nail on the head.
Rove's roots are in direct mail - hence the loud "outrage" and "backlash" against "liberal" probing into the industry.
Rove developed direct mail methods. Rove made his millions in direct mail.
And the "industry" is threatened, so they're fighting back.
Stop a second to consider the "titans" of GOP direct mail.
Karl Rove.
Bruce Eberle.
Ronald Kanfer and David Kunko (the guys behind the Willie Horton/Dukakis smear)
Richard Viguerie.
July 8, 2008 11:07 AM | Reply | Permalink