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    How Sharron Angle Raised $14 Million

    By Michael Wolraich on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 12:24pm | Politics

    How did Nevada Senate candidate and Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle raise an impressive $14 million dollars in three months?

    Elementary, my dear Watson.

    1. As a guest on Rush Limbaugh's show in June, Angle appealed for donations, explaining that she only needs "$100 dollars from 250,000 conservatives." She has repeated such requests on frequent Fox News appearances. Other Fox News guests have also encouraged audiences to donate to Angle.

    2. In a July interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Angle explained that she prefers Fox News interviews because they enable her to appeal for money:

    David Brody: Not to harp on the point but when you're on Fox News or talking to more conservative outlets but maybe not going on "Meet the Press" or a "This Week", those type of news shows, then the perception and the narrative starts to be like you are avoiding those mainstream media outlets.

    Sharron Angle: Well, in that audience will they let me say I need $25 dollars from a million people go to Sharron Angle.com send money? Will they let me say that? Will I get a bump on my website and you can watch whenever I go on to a show like that we get an immediate bump. You can see the little spinners. People say  'Oh, I heard that. I am going and I'm going to help Sharron out because they realize this is a national effort and that I need people from all around the nation. They may not be able to vote for me but they can certainly help."

    3. At a house party in September, Angle revealed the secret of her fundraising success to an inquiring guest, as reported by the Las Vegas Sun:

    Guest: Sharron, how are you doing as far as the fundraising?

    Sharron Angle: It's going really well. If you're interested in just the Internet part of that -- and of course I've been criticized for saying that I like to be friends with the [press] -- but here's the deal: when I get a friendly press outlet -- not so much the guy that's interviewing me -- it's their audience that I'm trying to reach. So, if I can get on Rush Limbaugh, and I can say, "Harry Reid needs $25 million. I need a million people to send twenty five dollars to SharronAngle.com." The day I was able to say that [even], he made $236,000 dollars. That's why it's so important. Somebody…I'm going on Bill O'Reilly the 16th. They say, "Bill O'Reilly, you better watch out for that guy, he's not necessarily a friendly"...Doesn't matter, his audience is friendly, and if I can get an opportunity to say that at least once on his show -- when I said it on Sean Hannity's television show we made $40,000 before we even got out of the studio in New York. It was just [great]. So that's what I'm really reaching out to is that audience that's had it with Harry, and you can watch that happen when I go on those shows. Go on my website, it starts coming in. We have an automatic…when you put your name in there and it doesn't tell how much you gave, but it tells your name and where you're from. And so you can just watch it; it just rolls like this. In fact, with Rush Limbaugh we put it all down. We couldn't take the ticker going fast enough. And we've pulled in over [3,000,000] dollars just from that kind of a message going out.

    4. Ninety-four percent of Angles' donations from July 1 to September 30 were for $100 or less. Her campaign did not disclose how much came from out of state.

     

    Fox News: Fair and balanced fundraising for Republican candidates.

     

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    For more on the relationship between right-wing media and Republican politics, read Blowing Smoke - Why the Right Keeps Serving Up Whack-Job Fantasies about the Plot to Euthanize Grandma, Outlaw Christmas, and Turn Junior into a Raging Homosexual.

    Topics: 
    Politics

    Comments

    Are you trying to tell me that ordinary Nevadans aren't pinching pennies and clipping coupons so they can send the savings to Sharron Angle, who needs it to hire an editor to remove the superfluous "r" from her first name?

    Okay, okay, I admit that any race that could depose the speaker of the house is a de facto national race, but still.


    by Michael Maiello on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 12:29pm

    Umm, I think the fact that the donations are $100 or less implies that ordinary people from all over America are pinching pennies and clipping coupons. Shouldn't that be a little more worrisome?

    Obviously Genghis' point that Fox is basically a free lead generation vehicle for Republican candidates (as opposed to a news organization) is a valid one, but the key word here might be "obviously." I don't think anyone here woke up this morning thinking that the key to many Tea Party candidacies was not out-of-state fundraising underwritten directly and indirectly by national organizations like Fox News and those funded by the Koch brothers.

    If anything, the thing that we may have learned from this post is that it's not just shadowy evil billionaires that are funding these campaigns; they've actually convinced ordinary, coupon-clipping, Dancing-With-The-Stars-watching Americans to go over to their computer and send some cash. That to me suggests that their attempt to foment and mobilize popular outrage (see a recently published book I've heard about for some insight into methods) might be enjoying even more success than I thought.

    Also, Harry Reid is the Senate majority leader, not the Speaker of the House. Clever comments about people's names so much funnier when they aren't followed by Jay-walking stuff like that.


    by Steve (not verified) on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 3:51pm

    Until I researched it, I actually assumed that her money game from the Club for Growth and other right-wing PACs.

    In any case, I'm less blasé than you about the role of Fox News. Fox's political bias is no shocker, but the ability of a Senate candidate to use Fox News to raise $14M is remarkable. I think that this is the first time that a candidate has combined the small-dose web-donation model pioneered by Howard Dean with the massive media power of an organization that claims to be a news outlet.


    by Michael Wolraich on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 4:26pm

    The only thing I'm more blase about is figuring out how to insert the accented e character in blase in the fancy rich text editor.


    by Steve (not verified) on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 6:46pm

    On a Mac: option-e followed by an e


    by Michael Wolraich on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 11:55pm

    I'm surprised that so much of her money came from contributions under $100, too, and I assume there's no way to have faked the figures.  Tell me: do candidates appearing on Maddow or Olbermann's shows make direct appeals?  I remember Howard Dean used to, and did it right out front, though I only remember him doing it on Tweety's show.


    by we are stardust on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 5:52pm

    no they don't


    by bdtex on Thu, 10/14/2010 - 1:05am

    Nevate?


    by DF on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 6:57pm

    People buy products they do not need every day. All it takes is a scene in a movie and an advertisement and some hat is purchased or a prescription for Viagra is requested.

    I think that we have been electing incompetent people for a couple of centuries.

    But advertising has taken over politics and the fascist corporate panel we call the Supreme Court has just made things worse.

    I am surprised that this incompetent, uneducated, ill read fascist woman might be the new senator from Arizona supposedly financed by some extremely stupid people.

    But how much of that money came from 'individuals' spurred onto contributing by their employers; how man 'individuals' were members of think tanks or lobby groups....

    Anyway, advertising is the mode, the tool to get elected and nobody is ever going to do anything about it.


    by Richard Day on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 7:09pm

    If you are going to rant about how stupid the other side is, just try, try, try a little harder not to make them look so smart.

    1) Angle is running for Senate in Nevada. NEVADA.

    2) While we're on the subject of one's level of education, the phrase "ill read," when used as an adjective, should be hyphenated, e.g., "ill-read." Not that it doesn't sound like preening elitist garbage either way.

    Honestly.


    by Steve (not verified) on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 8:47pm

    Oops. You got someone from the other side on hyphenation rules! And called him elitist!

    Game over. Sharon Angle is obviously infallible. If she were not, could anyone opposed to her election ever deviate, even slightly, from the Chicago Manual of Style? It's inconceivable!

     


    by Doctor Cleveland on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 8:57pm

    I blog expressly to have people correct my mispellings (or is that 'mis-spellings' ?) and punctuation errors.  I blog because I hate to proof-read )or is that 'proofread' ; or maybe 'Prufrock'?) before I publish things in the local free press (or is that Freepress'?)


    by we are stardust on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 9:08pm

    I believe that it's Freeport, ME. Which, as Sharron Angle could tell us, is overrun with illegal aliens who are murdering people in the streets. But since she punctuates those claims appropriately, they are factually valid.


    by Doctor Cleveland on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 9:34pm

    Good to know she and her friends value punctuality; it's next to Godliness, you know.

    Wow; Tancredo and Maez are on the teevee; must be a debate; ye gods and little fishes.


    by we are stardust on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 9:55pm

    Oh, there was a great series of drawings of trolls I ran across ...

    http://www.lucypepper.com/pt/blog/18-blog/2081-troll-catalogue


    by Donal on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 9:38pm

    Wow! This is a truly hilarious response. A few things you should know:

    -I think Angle is a fool.

    -I am a usually a Democrat, although maybe not (ok, clearly not) as militant as the people here.

    -I've got my share of graduate degrees, so me calling people elitist is the pot calling the kettle black.

    I just think it's hilarious that this fellow chose to include in his laundry list of Angle disqualifiers is that she is "ill read." Oh, dear - ill-read! Truly, one of the most damning of charges one can level against a candidate for political office. And of course, "uneducated." I suppose my sense of humor is a bit off for finding it silly that a person for whom education and well-readness (see, I'm ok with made-up words!) is so important couldn't find the time to know in what state the person is actually running for office, or use proper grammar for their carefully chosen term of art.

    "Ill read?" C'mon. Nothing the slighest bit silly/elitist about that? Really?

    I can say sincerely that I didn't intend to troll - I was just too new to realize that disturbing the echo chamber would be enough. I'll be going.


    by Steve (not verified) on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 10:10pm

    Aw, c'mon. Either you have a sense of humor or you don't. Stick around and don't be a sourpuss.


    by Doctor Cleveland on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 10:13pm

    See - i even got a typo in there!


    by Steve (not verified) on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 10:14pm

    Sometimes we all can get a little carried away with wordplay; it relieves some of the angst and crabby-appleton feelings of these uncertain days.  Hang in there, dude.  ;o)


    by we are stardust on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 10:38pm

    Too new? You're in denial Steve (not verified). You've been popping your unverified head in here for months. I much appreciate the thoughtful comments that you contribute upon popping in, verified or not, but I think it's high time for you to admit your addiction and verify yourself. At long last, have you left no sense of decency?

    PS If this is a different Steve (not verified) from the Steve (not verified) who has previously commented here, you can ignore this comment.


    by Michael Wolraich on Thu, 10/14/2010 - 12:03am

    If this isn't an argument for Real ID, then nothing is.


    by DF on Thu, 10/14/2010 - 3:53am

    Gee, it must be shocking to know that you are new to an environment and after crtiticizing these people they took umbrage, or is that, umm-Bridge?  And is that a bridge or the game of bridge?  Umm, I do not know, but I am not asking for help and neither was Dick Day.

    Stick around, Steve.  Mr. Day is a regular and well-liked by many, many people.  So we just get pissed off a little, or shall I say again, we take umbrage, at folks who come along and crap on him.  It's not about where you came from, it's what ya did when you got here.  Shortly, I anticipate Mr. Day may check back here and laugh at himself, but we, his friends, take him much more seriously then he takes himself and we suggest whether you read something well-spoken but poorly written, you try and focus on substance and not the abuse of such things.

     

    PS - Is this as punny as I think it was?


    by GregorZap (not verified) on Sat, 10/23/2010 - 1:39am

    OT, genghis, but here is Western Colorado staying classy.  KJCT tv says 'opinions vary on billboard'.

    http://www.nationalreview.com/battle10/249559/grand-junction-co-billboard-attacks-obama-michael-sandoval


    by we are stardust on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 11:58pm

    Holy racist caricatures, batgirl.God bless America.

    PS I think they left out Stalin.

    For the listeners at home, a billboard from Colorado:


    by Michael Wolraich on Thu, 10/14/2010 - 12:20am

    Well, considering how much they managed to cram in there...


    by DF on Thu, 10/14/2010 - 12:40am

    It's such a caricature of a caricature, I couldn't bring myself to take offense. The illegal immigrant also happens to be a communist, and the gangster-pimp is a Nazi in his spare time. The gay guy, at least, appears to spend all his time being gay and voting for Obama. And why do the iconic symbols they're gambling over include a Star Trek character? Trust me, this is going to replace "Dogs Playing Poker" on a lot of walls.


    by acanuck on Thu, 10/14/2010 - 2:43am

    Dude, your eyes are better than mine.  I thought I saw the ole sickle and hammer on the red sash, but I wasn't sure.  As for the Star Trek character, which one?  I can't make it out.  I really wish I had one of those Bladerunner-style image enhacement systems right now.


    by DF on Thu, 10/14/2010 - 3:52am

    Right in front of the Mexican guy's ammo belt. But maybe it's just a soldier in desert camo. That would make more sense (if anything in this mash-up can be said to make sense). Notice that everybody's card hand features the six of hearts. A subtle allusion to 666? What a cornucopia of crazy!


    by acanuck on Thu, 10/14/2010 - 1:27pm

    It may have been at Coloradoindependent I read that each player has a hand of three sixes, and yes, the impication is 'the devil'; they said thre's a Constitution and a Bible, too, and the Statue of Liberty: 'all up for grabs' is the theme.  A real knee-slapper; the dude who painted it said he wished some Republicans could have been included.  Wow.


    by we are stardust on Thu, 10/14/2010 - 2:02pm

    Holy Hatred, Batman.  America for damned sure needs some blessings right now; hard to see where they'd come from, or if she deserves it.  Didn't want to just paste these images into your blog without warning, but I figured you would.

    What with the death of contract law explained by a friend via email last evening, and the utterly bleak economic future ahead (if not catastrophic), and the poisonous atmosphere in DeeCee, not to mention the prevalance of the dark hatred in much of rural America depicted here (the gun stores can't even keep up with the orders), I could only stare at this in wonder.  (I just deleted some thoughts; they're only half-baked, anyway.)

    I'd imagine sometime today better images will be available so we can read the signage we can't see now.  I right-clicked it to a photo file, but enlarging it just pixillates it.  OS,OD.  GJ sucks at all times, but remember that Colorado had been celebratedly been turning blue.  Now, not so much.


    by we are stardust on Thu, 10/14/2010 - 8:23am

    If this is what the Reich has to offer, they will not attract the middle, where elections are won and lost.  I don't believe, or maybe I do not want to believe, that there are enough people attracted to this sign who will vote and make a difference.  I believe quite the opposite. 

    How much reason does one need to see this ad and reject what they are selling?  I am optimistic most people take government more serious then this.


    by GregorZap (not verified) on Sat, 10/23/2010 - 1:49am

    God, that's utterly and depressingly insane. It's the visual equivalent of listening to a paranoid schizophrenic elucidate his conspiracy theories in a bus depot.

    I'm with acanuck in that it's so deeply committed to the painter's strange world view that it doesn't make any attempt to reach people outside it.


    by Doctor Cleveland on Thu, 10/14/2010 - 2:59pm

    In regards to that $14M, here's an interesting piece from Political Animal today.  Worth a read, for sure (pun intended).

    But there was a catch that wasn't evident when the Angle campaign made the announcement, and it's an interesting story.

    Not long after winning her primary with almost no money at all, Angle hired a controversial fundraising firm called Base Connect, which has a habit of raising huge sums for its GOP clients, and then taking exorbitant commissions/fees for itself.


    by LisB on Sat, 10/16/2010 - 6:31pm

    I was going to mention that as well. It looks like she spent at a minimum $5 million for the direct mailing service.

     


    by kgb999 on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 1:15am

    Well, it seems to me Sharon figured out from buying one of those late-night get-rich-quick schemes that suggest if you put a little classified ad in lots of newspapers, people will send you money and this could add up to thousands of dollars.  It's a fact that ANY request for money will receive money and it you reach millions of viewers it is inevitable some of them will send you money.  It's the sad reality of having millions of viewers.  But when one actually does the math of how these millions of fewers only got her $40,000, there were very few percentage-wise who donated.


    by GregorZap (not verified) on Sat, 10/23/2010 - 1:45am