Heather Beaven has dedicated her campaign to being open about campaign finances. So every quarter of this campaign, Heather has released reports on exactly who invests in Beaven for Congress and how I spent those dollars. You can find our recent transparency report here.
The facts are very clear...in Heather's case.
John Mica, on the other hand, has not made that same commitment to openness. So we thought we would just spell it out for him, because people deserve to know who is backing the people who want to represent them. Everything you are about to read is straight from John Mica’s own finance reports found here.
John Mica has raised $1,039,305.12 this cycle. Only 39% of that total came from individuals. The rest of John Mica’s support, a whopping 61% ($627,649.01), came from large corporations and special interest groups in Washington DC.
Of the individual contributions, only about 30% came from “small” donors (that’s what Washington insiders call people who give less than $200.00). The rest (70%) came from the big fish (those giving $201.00-$4,800.00 each). The “small” donors aren’t listed by name and occupation so we can’t give you those details. We do know, however, that 58% of his big donors came from outside the District.
And who are these big donors? The overwhelming majority of them call themselves “Corporate Executives” or “Corporate Consultants” (that’s usually code for Lobbyist). You will not find nurses, electricians, plumbers, teachers, or first responders on John Mica’s list.
Mica's Corporate and Special Interest supporter list is also revealing. Wall Street and Big Oil really love John Mica. His friends in high places include - Chevron, Bank of America, Exxon Mobil, Halliburton, Marathon Oil and R.J. Reynolds. John Mica also received a couple grand from his son’s lobbying firm.
Average people give to campaigns out of conviction; but corporations buy access, and they have bought John Mica.
Help Heather compete with all that corporate money, Contribute Today!
So how did Mica spend his campaign funds? Most went to regular mundane things like $44,000.00 on travel, $19,000.00 on event fees, $180,000.00 on administrative overhead and several hundred thousand dollars supporting other Republican Congressional candidates.
But the man who calls himself a "fiscal conservative" sure does love a good meal. He spent over $100,000.00 on about 190 meals. While some of that $100,000.00 was spent on catering, the rest was used for “Meals with Constituents.” The average “Meal with Constituents” cost Mica $300.00. The most expensive was almost $1,400.00.
So while John Mica voted to cut off unemployment for financially devastated Americans, he spent the equivalent of a week or even an entire month of unemployment assistance on dinner. Nice work, if you can get it.
One good thing about eating out a lot is that it keeps servers, bussers and bartenders employed. Unfortunately, 75% of John Mica’s Fine Dining Stimulus Package was spent in places like Washington D.C. Begging one question about his “meals with constituents”… if his constituents aren’t Floridians, who are they?
The answer is clear. His “constituents” – the people he wines and dines over expensive dinners, the people he represents – are the Big Corporations and Washington Special Interest Groups whose contributions fill his coffers.
In case you thought it couldn’t get any more out of touch, John Mica even uses his campaign account to give thousands in what he calls “gifts” to his fat-cats friends.
So who do you think can best go to Washington to tell your story? A working mom who writes a mortgage check every month on a house that is as underwater as yours, or a guy who spends a mortgage-sized amount on dinner?
We are just 12 days away from our opportunity to send a strong message – WE ARE NOT FOR SALE.
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