It turns out that Nevada Republican Senate nominee Sharron Angle has retained the services of a very interesting firm for her fundraising: Base Connect, the shady Republican fundraising firm formerly known as BMW Direct.
As TPM alum Justin Elliott reports over at Salon, Angle’s campaign has spent more than $600,000 for Base Connect’s services — amounting to more than 20% of her total fundraising. Jon Ralston adds to the discussion, noting that Angle’s new communications director Jordan Gehrke is himself a former representative for Base Connect.
As we’ve previously reported, the firm has long been known for its history of using direct mail to raise tons of money for long-shot GOP candidates with almost no chance of winning, and then taking an exorbitant percentage as a commission. Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA), who won an upset victory in 2008 in a heavily Democratic district thanks to the incumbent’s corruption scandals, and who is heavily vulnerable this year, has suspended the firm’s work with his campaign after we reported that they were charging him a 75% commission.
Angle has previously noted that she prefers doing interviews with conservative media outlets that will allow her to raise money from viewers, making this wrinkle about where the money ends up going all the more interesting. The TPM Poll Average has Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid taking a lead of 44.5%-42.8% over Angle. So she might need to use all the money she raises on actual ads and GOTV operations.
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.
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