For the Love of Money: Brizzi, Kennedy, Curry, & Orentlicher Burn Rate Roundup

Before anybody else goes nuts, yes, I am a “fan” of Republican Marion County Prosecutor candidate Helen Marchal on Facebook. But understand that while I know and like her, I will employ every decent means at my disposal to ensure the Democratic Party recaptures the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office in 2010. I only started becoming a “fan” of Republican office holders when I realized that some, specifically Carl Brizzi, would only communicate by Facebook. If anybody construes my fandom to mean anything else than me trying to keep an eye on the sneaky little (expletive), they have a disingenuous agenda.

But while I’m speaking of Brizzi…

After review of Carlito's year-end campaign campaign finance report, I'm convinced he must have really thought he was going somewhere else. Otherwise, I can’t account for what has got to be an unprecedented non-election year burn rate. In 2009, Brizzi raised $138,573, but he spent $124,291 without making a single media-related or strategic (polling/message consultants) purchase, meaning his income to expense ratio was 1.1. For comparison, Democratic Prosecutor candidates Terry Curry and David Orentlicher had rate of 3.0, and 410 respectively. No, that’s not a typo. David O. raised $184,000 by spending $484, from which I can only conclude that he writes some very persuasive postcards.

Democratic mayoral hopefuls Melina Kennedy’s and Brian Williams have rates of 7.8 and 3.3 respectively. Mayor Greg Ballard posted a solid fundraising year of $830,000 earned, but he spent $377,000 to do it, for only a 2.2 rate.

Burn rates tend to be consistent even when the scale of a campaign changes. For example, Marion County Clerk Beth White spent $3,000 to raise $12,000, for a 4.0 rate.

Admittedly, burn rate is more art than science. For example, Williams spent a considerable amount on production costs early which means he jumped ahead of a conventional campaign. His rate would be a lot more efficient without that cost, so you have to scrutinize the expenses.

Yet even with such limitations, ratios serve as a useful gauge of campaign efficiency. For example, Brizzi’s staff cost him $33,000 to raise that $138,000, for a 4.1 staff to dollars ratio. In comparison, Kennedy raised her $252,000 on about $11,000 in staff costs for a 25.1 staff to dollar ratio, making Kennedy finance director Katie Lineweaver the best buy in Marion County politics.

So how does Brizzi spend almost every dollar he raises in a year?

Living the high life, baby! Reading his report will make you want to become an elected official because what you can do with other people’s campaign donations is amazing. Who's down with OPD (other people's donations)?!? Yeah you know, C!

Carl had a total of $7,300 worth of dining expenses listed under the heading “business meeting.” No, not fundraiser. “Business meeting.” This includes, but is certainly not limited to, 12 trips to Harry & Izzy’s for $2,501, 2 to Ruth’s Chris for $717, 4 to Sullivan’s for $426, five to Ambrosia for $1371, 2 to the Canal Grill for $179, 2 to the Capital Grill for $154, and 2 to Bella Vita for $196. He also spent $300 at a place called Luciano’s in Michigan for a “donor meeting” that apparently didn't go well since there are no Michigan donors on his report. (As an aside, who really goes to ask for money and spends $300 at the meal?)

Brizzi paid $345 to the Indianapolis Bar Association for his annual dues in addition to a total of $1450 for a prosecutor’s conference in San Francisco. One restaurant accounted for $508 of that cost.

Traveling in style is apparently important for Brizzi, who spent $540 on Image Limo in Chicago the same night he went to the Su Casa restaurant and spent $207 for “networking” and $545 staying at the Omni Hotel. On a different date, Brizzi spent $342 for Party Time Limousine. Folks, you don’t spend $342 on a ride to the airport.

Brizzi also has approximately $1,500 in reimbursements to himself for “travel” and “business meetings.” We know not where he went. But it's pretty clear if you work this whole elected official thing right, you can backdoor tons of money.

A couple of my other favorite items are $848 spent at Brown & Joseph for “gifts.” To whom? We don’t know! Nor do we know who received the $350 gift from Iwan Ries, a cigar shop in Chicago. On the subject of gifts, I chuckled at the $604 expense from Circle Center Mall for "employee Christmas bonus" dated January 6. Very timely of you, Carl!

You may say, “Who cares? The guy isn’t spending taxpayer money. He can use it as he chooses, and if his donors are dumb enough to give to the guy knowing he’s going to spend it eating out every night instead of running for office, that’s there idiocy.”

Actually, that’s precisely my point. Only by having concrete restrictions on how campaign funds can be used and more descriptive campaign finance reports can you distinguish between a campaign contribution and bribery.

Okay, maybe it's "reverse bribery" and not "actual" bribery because the donor may not have the intent. But the candidate sure knows that if he wants to keep living the highlife, he needs to keep getting the dollars. As far as the reporting, how do we know Brizzi didn’t smoke every cigar from Iwan Ries himself? Because he’s done such a bang up job disclosing information to us we’ll just trust him?

But in keeping with my New Year’s Resolution of saying something good about everybody, I want to publicly applaud Brizzi for donating $250 and $400 respectively to Indiana Equality and the Lambda Defense Fund, two organizations devoted to ending orientation and gender identity-based discrimination.

You have to have chutzpah out the yin yang to donate to both Indiana Equality and Lambda Defense and Vanderburgh County Right to Life, though I'm going to assume they weren’t in the same room when they got their checks.

Stay tuned for more analysis of the Marion County Prosecutor's Race and what will be done with Brizzi's half million in the bank....

For the Love of Money: Brizzi, Kennedy, Curry, & Orentlicher Burn Rate Roundup