Familiar?: Mitt Hands Top Staff Hefty Bonuses While Borrowing Millions

[Rose Siding]

Mitt Romney’s campaign handed out more than $200,000 in bonuses last month to senior staffers, according to new disclosure records filed Thursday.

Richard Beeson, Romney’s national political director, received a $37,500 payment on Aug. 31 in addition to his salary, according to records filed with the Federal Election Commission.

In addition, records show at least six other top staffers each received $25,000 bonuses on the same date: campaign manager Matt Rhoades, general counsel Kathryn Biber, policy advisor Lanhee Chen, communications director Gail Gitcho, digital director Zach Moffatt and advisor Gabriel Schoenfeld. Two other employees received $10,000 bonuses......

Despite strong fundraising since May, new records show that the campaign was struggling badly for money in August because it had run low on primary funds and was unable to tap into contributions collected for the general election until after the nomination. As a result, the campaign borrowed $20 million.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/wp/2012/09/20/romney-campaign-gives-bonuses-to-top-staff/

What better way to motivate the gop grassroots to give give give!

[Berlum]

1. Still, Executive Rats are jumping the S.S. Willard as it drifts into the Iceberg of Reality

What does it tell us when Willard's hand-picked campaign co-chair bailed on him -- or got pushed off the plank? Remember, just before this happened Bisphop Willard went to Utah by the Great Salty Waters to take his Marching Orders from the currently enthroned High Priests of Mormon.

[bklyncowgirl]

2. Let me get this straight--THIS is the great business mind that is going to restore our economy.

If I was a Romney donor I'd be rather annoyed. Of course I do not comprehend at all the special claims to entitlement of the investor class so perhaps they think that taking their money and giving to to his cronies is just a sign of his business accumen.

In other words, scam the suckers, then take the money and run!

[sammytko]

8. Like the other poster says, this is what they do before pulling the plug

Raid the bank, pay themselves and abandon ship.

[gollygee]

3. Well they're doing such a great job managing his campaign

You've got to reward a winning team like that.

[beac]

27. Yeah. Just like those well-compensated corporate CEOs...

If you didn't pay 'em big bucks they might go work for another campaign!

Lord knows plenty of down-ticket candidates must be DYING to get their hands on the Mitt's Dream Team!

This ought to REALLY help those small donors to start coughing up their $5. Who WOULDN'T want to be a part of Bonus-fa-Loozas??

[A Simple Game]

38. Maybe they are doing a great job. They don't have much to work with. n/t

[catbyte]

4. It's obvious they weren't based on performance.

So what gives?

[mattclearing]

5. This is standard operating procedure.

If you read Rolling Stone's election coverage, the one constant is that Romney loads organizations with debt and pays himself and his colleagues top-dollar.

[Rose Siding]

6. I wonder if it's SOP in political campaigns

If a candidate I support does this, I'd really like to know about it.

[mattclearing]

14. Dunno, but I think the schedule/funding requirements of the primaries and the general election...

...dictate this sort of thing for a presidential challenger.

[LiberalFighter]

36. I don't believe it is.

Something like this is usually done after the election is over. There might commissions given out for meeting quotas for fundraising.

[Retrograde]

35. He's running his campaign like he would a business

or his idea of how a business is supposed to be run: get in, run it into the ground, reward yourself and your friends for doing such a great job, and get out before the repercussions hit.

Imagine what he'd do to the country.

[LittleRock]

7. what if....

He does this on a grand scale, like, say, the federal budget?

[porphyrian]

9. That's how he's always done business. n/t

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. Old habits die hard. nt

[madokie]

11. In the end he'll have to file bankruptcy

How rich that will be to see him ask for mercy.

[heaven05]

25. what

he's not using his personal ill gotten gains for his election campaign is he. I know he has too much money to end up bankrupt, right?

[madokie]

44. His campaign

[malaise]

12. Silence is expensive

He's buying their loyalty before they sell the infighting to the publisher with the highest bid

[NightWatcher]

13. he doesnt want to be Prez, he's just running a con on donors

then he's going to leave town when he's borrowed as much as he can

[cbdo2007]

19. I don't know if you're kidding or not, but I've believed this from the beginning....

it's what he's done with every business he's ran.

[sinkingfeeling]

15. Why of course. Haven't they put on one hella campaign so far?

[Xyzse]

16. Hrm

Is this the reason I am not seeing much from his campaign?
I actually see more Obama advertisements than Mitt ones, particularly one from their own campaigns rather than just some 501(c)(4)/(3).

Well, I can't say I'm surprised.

[starroute]

17. This is why he's spending more time at fund-raisers than actually campaigning

I'm starting to think the entire Romney campaign is just one big scam and was never meant seriously. And if that's true, then his wealthy donors are the ones who are going to see how badly burned they were once the figures come out.

It's not just the official campaign, of course -- it's also Karl Rove's American Crossroads and the other PACS, and they're going to try to hide the numbers. But in the end it's a racket -- the equivalent of those low-level scum-suckers who send scare letter to little old ladies telling them their Social Security is at risk unless they send in $25 right now -- and the 1% doesn't much like being scammed.

[starroute]

18. Here are some links to support the "more time fundraising" thing

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/19/nation/la-na-romney-schedule-20120920

Mitt Romney's sparse campaign schedule worries some Republicans

September 19, 2012

When the political conventions ended in 2008, GOP candidate John McCain bounded around the country like a jack rabbit. In three days, he went from Wisconsin to Michigan to Colorado to New Mexico to Missouri, with multiple campaign appearances in some of those states.

Mitt Romney's schedule this year has presented quite a contrast.

In his first two days of campaigning after the conventions, Romney visited Iowa, New Hampshire and Virginia, with one stop in each state. Then he went home to Boston and took a day off from the campaign trail.

That, as it turns out, has been Romney's most active period of campaigning since the presidential contest moved into its crucial post-convention stage. Although his campaign says he is about to accelerate his pace, Romney so far has held far fewer public events than either presidential candidate did four years ago, and has spent a significant amount of time in states — Massachusetts, California, New York, Texas — that are not considered up for grabs in November.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444620104578006673883478816.html

September 20, 2012

Mitt Romney's plan to rebound from a tough stretch in his bid for the White House rests on stepping up campaigning in swing states, running more television ads and curtailing a fundraising push that has had him spending more time with donors in hotel ballrooms than with supporters at campaign rallies. . . .

Mr. Romney's decision to spend more time in swing states comes amid concerns from some Republicans that he has spent too much time raising money and not enough time in front of voters. This week, for example, his schedule has included stops in California, Utah, Georgia and Texas—four states where the outcome of the Nov. 6 election is all but certain. The stops produced millions of dollars in donations, but in light of his other struggles, they also became fodder for Republican complaints.

"Being in Utah to raise money is necessary, but he doesn't have to be there, in my view," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.). "If I were Mitt Romney, no person in Virginia could go very long without meeting me."

[dixiegrrrrl]

30. Newt was in the race for the money, so why not Romney.

And remember how Herman Cain "suspended" his campaign until the point where he could no longer collect Federal campaign funds??
THEN he quit.

[cbdo2007]

20. Does it say how much is going into Mitt's bank account??

I'm pretty sure he's found some way to skim a good $20 MIllion or so out of this campaign.

[Tom Rinaldo]

21. That's Wall Street Culture

Bonuses going up, bonuses going down. No one in that culture can be expected to get by on just salaries - in good times or bad.

[4_TN_TITANS]

22. I view this as a desperate plea to keep them from jumping ship...

You can pay these rats to stay on board.

[Moonwalk]

23. Well, he and his buddies have to walk away with something....

...after all this hard work and being forced to mingle with and cater to the common folk. If not the White House then as much $$$ as they can steal. I do hope he soaks the Koch Brothers big time.

[PATRICK]

24. So by the math

he dug a primary hole because he was too terrible a candidate to overcome the clowns without going into debt. Afterward he sees this minused from the presidential dedicated warchest just when he made fundraising extremely hard for himself outside of the goofball billionaires, some of whom did not really want him anyway.

Simply being tied up in fundraising used to be a perennial Democratic handicap eating up huge swaths of precious campaign time and black territory for Dem TV ads. It seems he is making real progress in making his natural unpopularity enthusiastically solid and unraveling all his other advantages- most of them crooked. Poor little rich guy. At the end of the day what will the fall of all these arrogant backers look like added to a stone cold loser? As he becomes abandoned he creates a reality like something of a sucking black hole- something the Dems have mostly avoided with their unhappy Presidental losers over the years.

[PATRICK]

26. You know you are in trouble

when you can't do anything that doesn't look bad. First he is in the old old position of having to deny being a monster when the problem comes from his own gratuitously heartfelt words. Next he needs money and staff so he gives bonuses.... to show he has plenty? ...to pause the exiting rats with cheese? to reward them for possibly saying "we told you so?"

[LynneSin]

28. With the campaign that Mitt is running he should have FIRED his staff

Just saying!

[beachgirl2365]

29. Tha's it .... We just need more Cowbell! :)

ROFL!!!! But seriously,..... There are claims that his campaign is just running through the cash,.. going bankrupt,.............. yet he hands out bonuses,.......... PAY ATTENTION FOLKS, to him it is business as usual, and this is how he will run the country!!! I can see it now,............people will be kicked off public assistance programs just so Mittens can hand out bonuses,........... very telling!!!

[DFW]

31. It can not be denied

Mittwit is indeed running his campaign like he ru(i)ns a business, like he would ru(i)n the country.

[librechik]

32. It's one way the 1% redistribute wealth--give it out as bonuses so the creditors can't get at it

the scale is usually a lot bigger. They are shameless corporate Stalinists, keeping all the money right at the top and shorting the serfs.

[Denise21]

33. Mitt Romney's Son

Mitt Romney's Son
Signed 'Abortion' Clause
In Surrogate Birth Contract


EXCLUSIVE

TMZ has learned Mitt Romney's son Tagg -- who had twins this year through a surrogate -- signed an agreement that gave the surrogate, as well as Tagg and his wife, the right to abort the fetuses in non-life threatening situations ... and Mitt Romney covered some of the expenses connected with the arrangement ... and it may boil down to an incredibly stupid mistake.

The twin boys -- David Mitt and William Ryder -- were born on May 4, 2012. We've learned Tagg and his wife Jen, along with the surrogate and her husband, signed a Gestational Carrier Agreement dated July 28, 2011. Paragraph 13 of the agreement reads as follows:

"If in the opinion of the treating physician or her independent obstetrician there is potential physical harm to the surrogate, the decision to abort or not abort is to be made by the surrogate."

Translation: Tagg and Jen gave the surrogate the right to abort the fetuses even if her life wasn't in danger. All the surrogate has to show is "potential physical harm," which could be something like preeclampsia -- a type of high blood pressure that could damage the mother's liver, kidney or brain, but is not necessarily life-threatening.

Paragraph 13 goes on:

"In the event the child is determined to be physiologically, genetically or chromosomally abnormal, the decision to abort or not to abort is to be made by the intended parents. In such a case the surrogate agrees to abort, or not to abort, in accordance with the intended parents' decision."

And there's another relevant provision in Paragraph 13:

"Any decision to abort because of potential harm to the child, or to reduce the number of fetuses, is to be made by the intended parents."

Translation: Tagg and his wife, Jen, had the right to abort the fetuses if they felt they would not be healthy.

Sources connected with Mitt Romney tell TMZ, Mitt was involved in the surrogate arrangement because he paid some of the expenses connected with the agreement. We do not know if Mitt Romney read the contract or knew the terms.

Mitt has said, "I'm in favor of abortion being legal in the case of rape and incest and the health and life of the mother." Otherwise, Romney is against abortion.

Now for the stupid mistake. We've learned Tagg chose the same surrogate in 2009, who gave birth to a boy. Attorney Bill Handel -- a nationally-known expert in surrogacy law who put the deal together between Tagg and the surrogate -- tells TMZ when the 2009 contract was drafted there was no Paragraph 13 providing for abortion because Tagg and his wife didn't want it.

Handel says in 2011, when the second contract was being drafted, everyone involved "just forgot" to remove Paragraph 13. Handel says, "No one noticed. What can I say?".

Read more: http://www.tmz.com#ixzz277iOeEEP

[DollarBillHines]

34. Buying chairs around the table

Heck, $25K would keep me around for a couple more months.

Otherwise, we would probably be seeing a full-scale mutiny. Those staffers probably feel that there is an Ice Cube's Chance in Hades odds about ever getting campaign work in the future.

County clerk, maybe.

[DeSwiss]

37. A $20 million loan from a community bank?

Records show that the campaign still owed $15 million of a $20 million loan from the Bank of Georgetown on Aug. 31. The campaign has since paid off another $4 million of the total by collecting new contributions for its primary account, officials have said.

- Sniff, sniff. Something doesn't smell right.....

[frylock]

39. why not? they've earned it!

this has to be one of the greatest campaigns ever run!

[jmowreader]

40. What would the bonuses have been like if Mitt was ahead?

[spanone]

41. to keep the rats from jumping ship, i imagine

[HiPointDem]

42. very. it's wall street's mo writ small. paying their top people more is deductible, & then they're

owed loyalty and favors.

[tclambert]

43. Is there a way Romney can suck several million out of the campaign for himself,

and then declare the campaign organization bankrupt? That would be the Bain way of doing it.

[VPStoltz]

45. This is Bain way - redistribution of other people's money to those who don't deserve it.

[Thomas Paine 2.0]

46. THAT'S THE WAY HE ROLLS

THIS IS HOW HE WOULD RUN THE COUNTRY TOO!
MORE TO THE TOP; FUCK THE BOTTOM
Let me rephrase that last line...
to heck with people in lower socio-economic classes.

[CJCRANE]

48. Very true

Welcome to DU!

[rapersun]

47. No surprises here - move along!

I'm not sure why this would surprise anyone. He said he would run the Country like a business. What do the fat cats do to get further ahead? They run their businesses - and when they start to fail, they decide how they can line their pockets first and screw the rest of us. This is always how Trump operated as well. Once you start to stutter, run up the debt and then file bankruptcy so all their creditors and the public get screwed by just getting paid a little bit for their products/services. This is how they make money - and they see nothing wrong with it at all.