This Just In: AIM Endorses Wyatt!

We're back and this time with some exciting news!  We went to the Republican Headquarters in Kirksville today and spoke with Wyatt's campaign manager, Ashley Young.  It was a quick conversation, but he gave us information that the campaign has not leaked to the media yet, so we, your republican money watchers, are bringing it to you first!

Recently Wyatt was endorsed by Associated Industries of Missouri or AIM!  AIM is a premier business trade organization.  They were established in 1919 and have been representing and supporting Missouri businesses in many ways.  Young seemed excited about this endorsement and we're very glad that he gave this information to us! 

It seems as if we're hitting the jackpot today with information on Wyatt's finances.  The front page of the Index (released today) has an article all about campaign finances.  The article basically sums up the finances of the candidates running for election next week.   

In the article it states that Wyatt received donations from four different anesthesia associations in Missouri.  These associations support Wyatt because of his stance on nurses positions.  Wyatt doesn't believe that nurses should have as many responsibilities as they do because they are restricted only to doctors.  

In a last push before the election, Wyatt has received $9,500 from several different Anesthesia groups in Missouri according the the Missouri Ethics Commission.  For a full summary on Wyatt's campaign finances visit the Missouri Ethics Commission website!

This last weekend before the election Wyatt and his campaign team are trying to get the vote out and we encourage you to pay attention to these last few days of campaigning and get out and vote too! 

5 days and counting...

 

One Last Look: Zachary Wyatt

Hey everyone! So we took a look at the calendar and realized there is only a little over a week until it is time to go out and vote! So this last week we're going to look at Zachary Wyatt and his funding!  For the past few weeks two of our classmates have been extensively following him.  For this information, please visit their blog Winning with Wyatt!

Wyatt has been very active with social media and has kept all of his supporters up to date with what he has been involved with.  He has three endorsers that have been common among most of our Republican candidates.  They are the Missouri Right to Life, the National Rifle Association and the National Organization of Independent Businesses.  Now, these are very common endorsers for Republican candidates and we were not surprised to see these organizations support the young candidate Wyatt.  

For more information on what these organizations stand for please visit their individual websites.  Because they are very generic donors to Republicans, Wyatt definitely meets their qualifications as a Republican candidate.  Below is a picture from his Facebook account with him at a local shooting range with a member of Friends of the NRA!

Taken from Zachary Wyatt's Facebook page.

Besides the money he has received from these three common endorsers, it looks as if he has raised money from local fund raising events that he has held.  Even though Wyatt is not receiving many endorsements from well-known, larger organizations, he is receiving the support of the people.  Wyatt has many followers in the community, but will community support be enough for Wyatt to win this election?

Look for more about Zachary Wyatt on Thursday! And don't forget election day is a week from tomorrow!

The NRA

Several of the recent candidates we have discussed have been endorsed by and received donations from the National Rifle Association or the NRA.  According to Open Secrets has the NRA has spent a total of $7,284,714 this election season.  We thought it was important to discuss the NRA because they are so influential in Republican campaigns with their endorsements.


Below is a chart from opensecrets.org  displaying the total amounts the NRA has contributed during the 2010 election:

Total Receipts	$14,716,870
Total Spent  (view expenditures)	$7,284,714
Begin Cash on Hand	$1,634,617
End Cash on Hand	$9,066,774
Debts	$0
Independent Expenditures	$6,011,892
Date of last report	September 30, 2010
Contributions from this PAC to federal candidates (list recipients) (30% to Democrats, 69% to Republicans)	$615,600
Contributions to this PAC from individual donors of $200 or more ( list donors)	$439,336

Several of the candidates we have discussed recently, including Roy Blunt and Tom Schweich, have recieved endorsments from the NRA.  In early October Schweich was endorsed by the NRA.  The NRA has a strong history of endorsing Republican candidates with conservative values.  The many members of the NRA are encouraged to vote for these endorsed candidates, making endorsments from the NRA very valuable.  The NRA is an extremely large, national organization and is very influential in campaigns.


And because it is the start of our midterm break, we figured we would leave you with something simple to watch, an attack ad recently released attacking Susan Montee, Schweich's Democratic opponent!

I Like Schweich: A Friendly Campaign!

Introducing: Tom Schweich as the Republican candidate for Missouri State Auditor!  If elected as auditor, Schweich will be Missouri's taxpayer watchdog.  While searching for information on Schweich we were both very impressed on how social media friendly his campaign website is, so you should check it out! 

The following ad is Schweich's most recent television ad and it is sponsored by Schweich for Auditor and endorsed by John Ashcroft and Missouri Right to Life.



Missouri Right to Life and John Ashcroft both endorsed Tom Schweich on June 16, 2010.  The conservative viewpoints of pro-life are upheld with Schweich and therefore Missoruri Right to Life has given him their support monetarily, while Ashcroft a celebrity factor.
 
Tom Schweich has not just been endorsed by well known people in the political scene, but by many supportive citizens as well.  These endorsements can be found on his campaign website in the form of video endorsements. Schweich uses technology to his advantage to relate better to the everyday voter.  By displaying video endorsements from friends, citizens, and former office holders he seems more credible.  He has extensive experience in many fields, which creates a solid platform for his campaign.  Yet he still uses a "friendly man" technique and caters to voters emotions by utilizing the video endorsements.

It is extremely important to be endorsed by well known organizations and people, but there is also importance in relating to voters.  By gaining support from the everyday citizen a campaign can be spread through word of mouth.  Schweich is one of the first candidates we've researched that has related especially well to us and we are sure, other voters.

For more information on Schweich and what is going on with his campaign, check out his Facebook page! Have a good Tuesday everyone!

A Perfect Team: Munzlinger and NFIB!

Hey everyone, we're back to bring you more information on Brian Munzlinger and his campaign for State Senator!  Information seems to be far and few for both Munzlinger and his opposing candidate Shoemyer, but we're doing our best to bring you as much as we can!

We thought we would narrow it in more today and take a look at the NFIB, or the National Federation of of Independent Businesses, which supports candidates across the country who support small businesses.  Brian Munzlinger and many other Republican candidates are endorsed by the NFIB and are helping promote the Voice of Small Businesses. NFIB's mission is to protect their members so they themselves can own and operate their own businesses.

The NFIB endorsed Munzlinger on September 1, 2010.  According to Brad Jones, NFIB/Missouri state director, "NFIB is proud to endorse Brian Munzlinger because he has a clear understanding of the needs of small business owners. While in the Missouri House of Representatives he worked to protect their rights as well as fight to keep unnecessary regulations and taxes from adding to the burden of running a successful business."

Not only does the NFIB want to endorse candidates that are carrying out their mission, but the candidates also enjoy and appreciate what NFIB has done for them.

The endorsement Munzlinger received in September came from Missouri SAFE or Save America's Free Enterprise Trust, which is NFIB's political action committee.  Contributions to this trust are made by the NFIB members.

And just for fun, we thought we would add a video for you to see on Brian Munzlinger campaigning for himself!

Check back over the weekend, we may have a special post! Have a relaxing Friday and feel free to comment!

Introducing Brian Munzlinger

Brian Munzlinger is a conservative Republican running for State Senator in District 18.  He is a third generation farmer and holds conservative and christian values.  As far as we have found, his campaign contributions are mostly from the agriculture industry.  This is obviously because Munzlinger strongly supports the agricultural business and as the current State Senator in District 1 Munzlinger has shown great support for agriculture and the small business. 

Munzlinger's background plays a large role in his campaign fund-raising.  He has always made it a priority to assist farmers in Missouri.  According to Munzlinger's biography, he helped found the Northeast Missouri Grain Processors Co-Op Ethanol Plant located in Macon; this is the first ethanol plant in Missouri and Munzlinger still serves on the board of this Co-Op.  He is also the former president of the Missouri Corn Growers Association and is a current member of Missouri Soybean Association, Missouri Cattlemen's Association, and NFIB.  

Being actively involved in organizations such as these has helped Munzlinger network and gain support and campaign funds.  Look for more on Brian Munzlinger in a couple of days!  For more information on Brian Munzlinger, follow our classmate's blog!

"Where's My Stimulus?"

Hey everyone! We hope you had a nice and relaxing weekend! We wanted to bring you an extra post this week because we feel we came across a lot of information on our candidate Roy Blunt.  We also apologize to any of you who had taken a look at the blog in the past day, we were experiencing some technical difficulties and are glad to have it back to normal!

Blunt, like any other candidate, not only receives money, but also spends money on attacks on opponents.  Blunt’s opposing candidate, Robin Carnahan, is who he and Friends of Roy Blunt individual supporters have been attacking.

They are focusing their attack on the money that Carnahan’s younger brother, Tom Carnahan, received from his wind farm company.  Tom Carnahan received $107 million from the stimulus.  The Republican candidates believe that this is controversial because the farm is based in Saint Louis where two Carnahan’s currently hold office already.  Russ and Robin Carnahan supported this $814 billion stimulus and then their brother Tom received $107 million of it.  Blunt and his supporters do not see how this is just.

The attack ad that Roy Blunt is supporting is targeting this money exchange and how the stimulus has not increased our jobs like it said it would.

For more information on Roy Blunt, please visit our fellow classmates’ blog specifically dedicated to him!

Chamber Controversy

Our goal in this blog is to show you where a candidate’s campaign money is coming from.  There are other ways to support a campaign financially than directly donating money to the campaign.  Certain organizations can endorse a candidate and run their own ads about that candidate or attack ads, benefiting the campaign.

One of Roy Blunt’s major endorsers is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  We decided to focus on this endorser because of the recent controversy concerning where the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is receiving money from.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce currently has foreign members and receives foreign money.  It is illegal to use any foreign money for campaign funds. Blunt was recently seen ignoring the press when asked questions concerning the foreign donations to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

According to thinkprogress.org, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has funneled all donations from foreign organizations into one general account.  After this the money is not kept track of.  The general account money is then used to run attack ads and the chamber doesn’t need to reveal where the money came from.  The Chamber has run over 8,000 ads against Democrats and has spent 85 percent of its allotted 75 million dollars on Republicans.

As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is one of Roy Blunt’s supporters and has endorsed him we feel it is necessary to know about the controversy the Chamber is involved with.  One of the main issues the Chamber supports Blunt on is his campaign for more jobs.  The U.S. Chamber has recently sponsored ads such as the one below that promote Republican candidates in support of more jobs.

As a voter it is important to understand that a candidates endorsers could have foreign monetary supporters.  Roy Blunt when confronted about this issue denies having any idea about the situation and directed the press to speak to the chamber.  

 

Roy Blunt and his Financial Supporters!

We hope everyone had a great weekend and is ready to kick the week off with Roy Blunt, the Republican Senate candidate for 2010! We're going to bring the same information to you that we did with Luetkemeyer and hopefully even more since our classmates, Carrie and Adam, will be covering Robin Carnahan and we can look at her attack ads as well.

Roy Blunt has been an active member of his campaign for the November election. Impressive is the fact that he is very involved with social media. It was not hard to find both Blunt's Facebook page and his Twitter updates. If you want to learn more about what Blunt stands for check out his homepage and the social media he has invested in and it will really help you!

But, tonight we really wanted to take a look at the PACs that have supported Blunt for this election. The total amount of PAC money Blunt has made for the 2010 year is $2,342,358 and the number of contributions is at 948.

One of the top dollar amount contributors to Blunt is the Energy and Natural Resources industries. These PACs have contributed a total of $233,500.  A few of the sectors of this industry include: Oil & Gas and Mining.

Blunt has been a recognized leader for energy issues, especially in 2008. He wants to cut ties with bringing in outside products from other countries and keep it within the United States. It makes sense why PACs would support him financially for what he is trying to do.

Check back in with us on Thursday and we will have more information for you on Blunt and his finances! And start thinking about who you would like us to cover locally because soon we will have a poll for you!