WHAT IS THE COST OF ELECTING AND MAINTAINING A CONGRESSMAN

 

Last week’s column set out questions sent to Congressman Crawford more than a year ago asking him what he did to earn his pay.  Since Congressman Crawford has not told us what he did to earn his pay please examine the amounts he reported, as required by law, collecting for his Congressional campaigns, the amount of his salary and the amount he collected for staff salaries and expenses.

 

                                       CAMPAIGN EXPENSES

2010 Campaign:

Raised $1,252,638

Spent $1,172,563

Cash on hand $80,076

*Small individual contributors $105,454 8%

**Large individual contributors $687.532 55%

PAC contributors $327,439 26%

Candidate self-financing $62,000 5%

Other $69,614 6%

 

2012 Campaign:

Raised $1,338,446

Spent $1,211,036

Cash on hand $155,982

*Small individual contributors $108,071 8%

**Large individual contributors $610,702 46%

PAC contributions $555,787 42%

Other $63,886

       

2014 Campaign as of September 30, 2013:

Raised $345,214

Spent $194,867

Cash on hand $306,328

*Small individual contributors $25,404 7%

**Large individual contributors $128,212 37%

PAC contributors $191,598 56%

 

To collect $1,252,638 for his 2010 campaign Crawford had to collect $343.19 every day for the entire year and collected $13.43 for every vote he received (93,224) in 2010.

 

Congressman Tim Roemer said “Congressmen spend too much of their time dialing for dollars rather than protecting the dollars of their constituents.”

 

                           CONGRESSMAN CRAWFORD’S SALARY

 

For three years Congressman Crawford receives a $174,000 yearly salary, more than 5 times the median household income ($37,583) for Cleburne County for a total of $522,000.00

 

                            STAFF SALARIES AND EXPENSES

                                                 

For his first three months in office, January, February and March 2011Congressman Crawford’s staff payroll and expenses were $216,000 5^th highest of the 94 freshmen Congressmen. The staff payroll and expenses of Republican Tim Griffin from Arkansas for that period were $192,849 and the staff payroll and expenses of Republican Congressman Steve Womack from Arkansas for that period was $177,824.  9 Congressmen during that period spent less than $145,000 on their staff payroll and expenses and the most frugal was Joe Welsh Republican of Illinois who spent $98,000.

 

All Congressmen have “franking privilege” which allows them free postage.   In his first year in office Congressman Crawford spent $81,548 on franked mailings, more than THREE times the amount spent by the three other Arkansas congressmen COMBINED.  More than TWICE the median household income in Cleburne County. Did you receive the two “franked” slick mailers Crawford sent out, modestly, telling voters, what a great job he was doing in Washington?

 

Add them all up, campaign contributions to September 30, 2013 $2,936, 298.00 salary for three years $522,000.00, staff salaries and expenses for 3 years based on the $216,000 for the first three months in office rounded to $200,000 or $600,000 a year $1,800.000.00 for a grand total of $5,258,298.00

 

Citizens in your district are entitled to know if the work you performed as their Congressman for the past three years was worth the $2,322,000 you received from taxpayers in salary, staff salaries and expenses.

 

Citizens in your district are entitled to know if all the people in your district benefited from the $2,936,298 individuals, corporations and PAC’s contributed to your campaigns or if only those contributors will benefit from their contributions.

 

Citizens in your district are entitled to know how much time you and your staff spend “dialing for dollars” compared to the amount of time you and your staff spend doing the people’s business.

 

Congressman Crawford will the contributions to your 2014 campaign be more or less than the $1,338,446.00 you collected for your 2012 campaign?  If re-elected will you salary and expenses, and the salaries of your staff be more or less than they were in 2013?

 

The 112^th Congress, January 2012 to January 2013, convened for business 153 days, an average of less than 13 days a month, and was one of the least productive in recent history passing only 219 bills which became law.

*Small individual contributor less than $200**Large individual contributor more than $200