Tuesday, August 24, 2010


Jacobs Campaign Spent $78K
in 1st Half of 2010


Join me please in becoming an accountability activist, using publicly available documents for the Rick Jacobs Courage Campaign, hereafter referred to as it is realistically incarnated as the Jacobs Campaign, to get a look at how one Gay Inc org handles stewardship of some of their community dollars. This exercise will take but a few minutes.

The Jacobs Campaign has a registered issues committee with the California Secretary of State, and the most current documents for the org are for the first six-months of 2010.

I've looked over the expenditures, totaling $78,624.33, and nothing stands out as questionable in any way, at least to my eyes. The items that caught my attention were the payments made to RDJ Strategic Advisers, which is an arm of one Richard D. Jacobs. Yep, his Jacobs Campaign uses the services of his RDJ affiliate and it comes across as a cute practice. Go here for a taste of Rick Jacobs Inc.

Please check out the many sets of fiscal info on the Jacobs Campaign's state arm at the SoS's site. Click here to read the full list of expenditures.

In other Jacobs Campaign news, a key organizer, Wendy Aragon, has left the org and circulated this open email over the weekend:

I've had conversations with a few of you and it's actually been a very long back and forth process, but as of today, I will officially be moving on from The Courage Campaign.

I made the commitment today to become one of the San Francisco Community Organizer with Organizing for America, which is similar to what I do as a DFO in Courage.

I feel that it is the best move for me and will help me to really take on many of the issues that I have been wanting to work on for some time now but have not been able to with Courage. [...]

Excerpted from the SoS filings on the Jacobs Campaign:

DAVID BINDER RESEARCH POLLING AND SURVEY RESEARCH $55,000.00

KAUFMAN LEGAL GROUP PROFESSIONAL SERVICES (LEGAL, ACCOUNTING) $45,000.00

COURAGE CAMPAIGN ISSUES FORWARD FUNDS DEPOSITED IN ERROR $30,445.00

KAUFMAN LEGAL GROUP PROFESSIONAL SERVICES (LEGAL, ACCOUNTING) $10,954.14

LILIA HOLAND TAMM CAMPAIGN CONSULTANTS $10,900.00

HILDEBRAND STRATEGIES CAMPAIGN CONSULTANTS $10,000.00

BANKCARD USA OFFICE EXPENSES $7,860.77

CAITLIN MALONEY CAMPAIGN CONSULTANTS $4,500.00

DAVID JOHN FLECK CAMPAIGN CONSULTANTS $4,500.00

THE STRATEGY GROUP CAMPAIGN CONSULTANTS $3,750.00

GABRIEL N. SANCHEZ CAMPAIGN CONSULTANTS $2,500.00
[....]
YES! ON EQUALITY CONTRIBUTION $2,500.00
[...]
AIDAN CRAWFORD OFFICE EXPENSES $1,759.17

JAMES, EDEN OFFICE EXPENSES $1,662.57
[...]
RDJ STRATEGIC ADVISORS NO ON 4: MEDIA $1,400.00

RDJ STRATEGIC ADVISORS CREDIT CARD PAYMENT $1,362.28

RDJ STRATEGIC ADVISORS PRINT ADS $1,099.63

Let's hear other voices from the CA gay community about these filings and the Jacobs Campaign agenda leading into the 2010 state elections.

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