For someone who is supposedly sorry about yelling "You lie!" at the president, Joe Wilson certainly cashed in on it.
On Sept. 14, Wilson's campaign doled out $52,250 to the Virginia-based digital communications firm Active Engagement for web design and online advertising. On Sept. 16, the campaign paid $42,400 to retain the David All Group — a Washington-based Republican new media firm — to help boost Wilson's profile on Twitter and other social networking sites.
Piryx, a firm that processes online donations, received $72,007 from the campaign in September. Wilson's team also spent nearly $30,000 to rent a mailing list from the Richard Norman Company, a conservative fundraising organization in northern Virginia.
All told, the Wilson campaign spent roughly $235,000 on services related to fundraising and communications strategy.
That's an awful lot of money for a five-term Repub in an R+9 district.
Remarkably, it seems that Wilson is spending money like a challenger, not an incumbent. Rob Miller hasn't spent nearly as much on fundraising and marketing as Wilson has lately. Usually, you'd expect a challenger to spend a ton on such efforts to introduce himself to voters.
Then again, as we saw in September, Wilson's district might be about to blow up on him. Let's help things along by showing Rob some love.