No matter whose campaign it is, it’s never an encouraging sign when campaign staffers start working for free.
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No matter whose campaign it is, it’s never an encouraging sign when campaign staffers start working for free.
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I took some time and looked back in the 3rd quarter 2007 filings at the internals of the campaign finance filings.
Salary expenditures for Q3 as of Sept 30 showed McCain paying people 910K, though his previous report was much higher and showed he paid salaries for all of 2007 to date at that time about $4 million. That was the time period when he shut down everything after Comprehensive Immigration Reform, if you recall.
Romney paid salaries of $2 million in Q3. About the same amount for Guilliani. Hillary and Obama, about double that each.
So given that the estimate is 750 million dollars must be spent by the final two going all the way to November, and top end quarterly salaries of $2-4 million, it does not seem to make sense for people to take pay cuts other than for symbolism. $2 million per quarter is nothing as a percentage of the total. One wonders if the symbolism of sacrifice to the lower staff workers is undone by the appearance of fund raising problems.
The big expenses are media buys and to a lesser extent consultants (pollsters). Travel is also only $1-2 million per quarter for a top tier campaign.
The lower tiers, of course, can spend less because 1) they don’t compete everywhere and 2) they are lower tier.