Wonkette has a post here about how Katherine Harris’s campaign spent about $1,000 on Starbucks this fall. FEC data here. Hope no one reading this donated to the candidate.
Wonkette (”politics for people with dirty minds”) took this up for amusement — Harris is notorious for her ultra-specific Starbucks order — but I think it would be worth looking into: What percentage of campaign donations ends up spent on perks for the staff?
I also think this brings up a broader issue of the non-profit sector. If a donor’s paying for your coffee, and your boss has no responsibility to make money, why conserve? There are plenty of anecdotes about how non-profits (especially big ones with lots of donations, like campaigns, I would think) run themselves more lavishly than comparable enterprises in the profit sector.
This reminds me of a story I read recently but couldn’t think of enough commentary about for a blog post: Google is starting a for-profit charity. A business taking a cut from a charity’s work is a loss in itself, but I wonder if the additional oversight will more than make up for it in fiscal responsibility and fewer Starbucks trips.
Not sure how this could be carried over to political campaigns (campaigning for profit doesn’t hold much promise), but there has to be a way for politicians to better apply their funds.
Robert VerBruggen blogs at http://robertsrationale.blogspot.com.
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