Last edited 10:43 a.m. Nov. 21.Reporting on the contributions area businesspeople throw toward federal and state political elections is old hat for Springfield Business Journal staff. Tracking where those political candidates spend those donations is a new discovery.
Last week, I stumbled upon a search engine that, after a few clicks of the keyboard, spit out the fact that Mitt Romney’s campaign spent nearly $16,000 in Springfield during his unsuccessful presidential bid. President Barack Obama’s efforts netted the Springfield business community zilch.
Romney expenditures in Springfield spanned from a $10,000 consulting fee from advertising/branding agency Marlin Network to a $3.55 tab at a local Hardees. Hey, campaign stumping requires full bellies.
The online database is run by Caspio, using Federal Election Commission data as of Oct. 15. I caught wind of it from a St. Louis Business Journal blog post about the places the presidential candidates spent their campaign dollars in the St. Louis area. The state’s top vendor, in these financial terms, was St. Louis advertising agency Fuse Inc., which collected a whopping $4.3 million from the Obama campaign.
In Springfield, Marlin Network received a one-time $10,000 payment from the Romney campaign for policy consulting, while the database shows two $2,500 entries to freelance vendor Tyler Manhart for digital consulting services. Manhart’s LinkedIn profile lists him as the digital director for the Boston-based Romney for President outfit October 2011–August 2012.
Traveling down the list, $900 was spent with Steele Communications for equipment rental. Owner Mark Steele said his company rented 32 handheld radios for the Missouri Republican convention held in May at University Plaza. He said part of the bill was paid by Romney’s campaign, and the remainder was covered by the state Republican party. Steele has been providing the walkie-talkies for the two-day convention since 2004 but hasn’t seen any additional political vendor doors open up for his company. “Nope, not a bit,” Steele said, noting he’s not intending to build upon the agreement, either. “If they didn’t call, I wouldn’t pursue it.”
The only other southwest Missouri vendor getting a piece of this political pie was Steve Plaster in Lebanon. Plaster was cut a $7,000 check by the Romney team for air travel services in January.
On the flip side, two contributions by two Springfield power families exceeded the amount spent here for services. The Romney campaign collected $10,000 apiece from Rosalie and David O’Reilly of the O’Reilly Automotive family and father-and-son Jerry and Curtis Jared of Jared Enterprises. Other big-ticket Romney donations were $7,000 from William and Virginia Darr of International Dehydrated Foods, and $5,000 apiece from Louis Griesemer of Springfield Underground, Sally Hargis of Ozarks Coca-Cola/Dr Pepper Bottling Co. and Jack Stack of SRC Holdings, according to our Oct. 22 story, “Business owners speak up with campaign donations,” by reporter Brian Brown.
The Obama campaign did not collect as many high-dollar contributions, with top area donors being retired physician Carlos Peres, $6,000, and Steven and Peggy Stepp of National Audio Co., $5,000.
Comparing the 2012 election to the 2008 campaigns, in terms of candidate appearances, Springfield received little love this year.
Perhaps that was due to Obama being a frequent visitor of Joplin following the May 2011 tornado. He might have thought that presence – along with an abundance of Joplin visits by Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon – would spread across southwest Missouri and the goodwill of his actions and words toward the community there would carry over to the 2012 polls. The votes didn’t agree with that, however. While Romney carried Missouri with 54 percent of the vote, his margin was greater, 69 percent, in Joplin’s Jasper County.
Southwest Missourians did get a taste of vice presidential hopeful Paul Ryan, who raised an estimated $1.2 million during a private fundraiser in August at Ramada Oasis Hotel and Convention Center.
At least some of that money came back to the Ozarks.
Springfield Business Journal Editor Eric Olson can be reached at eolson@sbj.net.[[In-content Ad]]
