| Yesterday, BOR was one of the first to report that U.S. Senate candidate and former Texas Comptroller John Sharp had returned nearly twice the amount of money he had raised in the second fundraising quarter, giving him a negative net contribution total for the quarter. The Austin American-Statesman's Jason Embry took a closer look at who exactly was among the contributors that Sharp's campaign refunded more than $90,000 to. Sharp returned more than $90,000 to his contributors during the second quarter. So his net contributions for the period totaled -$45,000. These returned contributions were large checks — many of them for the per-election maximum of $2,400. And more than $70,000 of those returned contributions went back to employees, and family of employees, of Ryan and Co., the tax-consulting firm that employs Sharp. Ryan and Co. employees (not their families) gave Sharp more than $150,000 in the first quarter of the year. So Sharp is not returning all of the money he got from them. But he is returning a lot of it, and it’s unclear why. Sharp’s campaign did not respond to questions about the contributions Thursday. Of all the candidates running to replace U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Sharp has the second-most cash on hand with $2.9 million. But he also raised the least amount of money in the second quarter. He’s only financially competitive at the moment because he has loaned his own campaign $2.6 million. With the other Democrat in the race, Houston Mayor Bill White, leading the field in money raised, Sharp either isn’t trying to raise money or isn’t very good at it any more.
We will keep an eye on this story and update it when and if the Sharp campaign decides to respond to Mr. Embry's questions. UPDATE: Sharp's campaign has now answered Embry's questions and he had a story about in this morning's Statesman. The story is excerpted below: Democrat John Sharp returned more than $90,000 in campaign contributions in recent months after a colleague told donors the wrong date for when Sharp would be making his bid for the U.S. Senate, his campaign said Friday. The former state comptroller is running to replace U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who may soon resign her seat to run for governor. An election to replace her has not been set. More than $70,000 of the money that Sharp returned went to employees and families of employees at Ryan, the Dallas-based tax consulting firm where he works. "A well-intentioned colleague of Sharp's in Dallas sent out a fundraising solicitation to Ryan and Company directors but mistakenly listed a May 2009 election date," Sharp spokesman Kelly Fero said. "Sharp returned the checks so that no one would think they had been asked to give under a false pretext." Some of the donors will wait until the election date is set and then contribute, Fero said.
So one fundraising solicitation from a colleague raised over $90,000 while Sharp, who has paid thousands of dollars to a fundraising consulting firm, raised only about $45,000 during the second quarter. |
