And checking out just as quick:
"Brown’s big quarter boosts total to $12.8m" by Frank Phillips | Globe Staff, January 09, 2012
Senator Scott Brown raised $3.2 million in the last three months of the year, boosting his campaign war chest to $12.8 million, the most that any Massachusetts candidate has accumulated at this stage of a statewide race.
Brown’s campaign said the Republican senator raised $8.5 million in 2011, a robust tally that signals that the GOP is again ready to rally behind Brown. The Senate campaign is expected to be one of the most watched in the country as Brown faces off against a Democratic field led by Elizabeth Warren.
The only Massachusetts campaign account close to the size of Brown’s was that of Senator John F. Kerry, who had $9.9 million in the first month of his 2008 reelection campaign, much of it left over from his 2004 presidential race....
The state Democratic Party tried to put its own spin on Brown’s fund-raising tally yesterday, accusing the senator of raking in large contributions from those with ties to banking and the financial industries....
Sometimes they spin into the truth.
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Can $he be$t him?
"Warren quickens pace in cash race" January 12, 2012|By Frank Phillips
Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law School professor and consumer advocate whose US Senate candidacy has fired up Democrats across the nation, raised $5.7 million in the last three months of 2011, an unusually large amount for a first-time candidate and a reflection of what many observers say is her potent appeal to party leaders and activists eager to recapture the seat once held by Edward M. Kennedy.
Her overall fund-raising for the three final months of 2011 far outpaced Senator Scott Brown’s $3.2-million total for the same period.
On Monday, Brown’s campaign released figures showing that the Republican had raised a total of $8.5 million in 2011, some several hundred thousand less than the $8.8 million Warren raised since summer.
Still, Brown holds a strong advantage, with $12.8 million in his campaign account, a record amount for any Massachusetts candidate this early in a regular election cycle.
Warren, by comparison, has just over $6 million on hand in her account, according to her campaign.
Warren, who has never run for office before and has no fund-raising structure to draw upon, stunned the political world this fall when she raised $3.15 million in the few weeks surrounding her announcement that she had officially entered the race.
Tad Devine, an experienced Washington-based Democratic media consultant, said Warren’s fund-raising prowess is startling for a candidate with no background in electoral politics.
“That is an extraordinary amount of money to be raised by a first-time candidate,’’ he said.
“Even in a big state, raising $2 million in one quarter is a big haul for an incumbent US senator,’’ said Devine, who has advised Democrats in Senate races across the country for 20 years, including Kennedy’s famous 1994 battle to beat back a challenge from Mitt Romney.
Brown broke all records when he ran in the January 2010 special election to fill Kennedy’s seat, hauling in $14 million in the 19 days leading up to the election, as the race became a national cause for conservatives across the country.
And now it has become a cause for Democrats that see Brown as an illegitimate usurper of the Kennedy crown (at least, among some 'round h're).
Until then, among the most costly US Senate races in Massachusetts history was the 1996 battle between US Senator John F. Kerry and William F. Weld, then governor.
That race, too, drew national attention, allowing Weld to raise $7.1 million. Kerry took in $4.1 million, while also using $1.32 million in personal funds.
Combined, the two spent about $16 million, a level that Brown and Warren will almost assuredly surpass in the coming months.
Just sitting here wondering how many foreclosures that would have forestalled, how many cops and teachers it would pay for, how many roads repaired and bridges built, etc, etc, etc). Instead it is all going into incestuous politics.
This year’s race, which both national parties feel is critical to their control of the Senate, is also expected to generate millions of dollars of television ads from third-party political action committees.
Click
Already a committee founded by Karl Rove, former president George W. Bush’s chief political adviser, spent more than $1.1 million last fall assailing Warren.
See: Why Brown Will Beat Warren
At the same time, Brown came under fire with $3 million worth of ads from two environmental groups attacking his record.
In an effort to introduce Warren to voters and counter the Rove attacks, the Warren campaign spent $1.6 million on television ads in December.
While some of Warren’s fund-raising success is spurred by the Democrats’ determination to wipe away the humiliation Brown inflicted on them and the Obama White House by putting the Senate seat in GOP hands, some observers say her wider appeal stems from her national image as a crusader for the middle class.
“This has to do with her embodiment of that message of standing up for the middle class and fairness,’’ said John Sasso, a veteran Massachusetts political strategist who has advised a host of national Democratic leaders, including President Clinton and several presidential candidates.
“She says it in such a compelling and authentic way that she is getting an overwhelming response,’’ he said. “She doesn’t sound threatening or angry. She comes across as very committed and at a time when people are looking to somebody who embodies that commitment to fairness.’’
Her campaign reported that the average contribution in the final months of 2011 was $64 and said the total number of Massachusetts contributors increased to roughly 23,000. Warren’s campaign said it would not release the total number of donors until its official report is made public on Jan. 31.
The lower the amount, the more broad-based is a campaign. That means more votes.
“From all across our Commonwealth, people are supporting our campaign and the fight to level the playing field for middle-class families,’’ Warren said in a statement. Only about a third of the donors in her previous report were Bay State residents.
“With Wall Street lining up against this campaign, already contributing millions and willing to pay any price to try to stop our work, it’s going to take a strong, grass-roots effort like this to win,’’ she said.
If Wall Street is against her I'm for her.
Asked to respond to Warren’s new numbers, Brown’s campaign remained silent, deferring comment to the state Republican Party.
A party spokeswoman said Warren has relied on “left wing’’ supporters pushing a liberal agenda in Washington.
As opposed to corporations corrupting the political process, right?
“Elizabeth Warren is being financed by extreme liberal special interests from outside Massachusetts,’’ Alleigh MarrΓ©, a party press aide said in an e-mail.
And Brownie has got the banks.
“As the intellectual founder of the radical Occupy protests, she has a national network of left-wing supporters eager to open their wallets to finance her agenda of bigger government, higher taxes, and more debt.’’
If she inspired Occupy then I'm really hot for her.
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What do you mean Warren is a one-percenter?
"Warren releases financial report" January 14, 2012|By Noah Bierman
Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law School professor and consumer advocate challenging Republican Senator Scott Brown, took home more than $700,000 in compensation from teaching and consulting fees over a two-year period from 2010 to 2011, according to her most recent financial disclosure form.
Over that same period, she was collecting a six-figure salary for two consecutive federal government appointments.
She earned about $165,300 from September 2010 through August 2011 as a special adviser to President Obama, setting up the consumer protection agency she helped establish.
Before that, she collected a total of $192,722 for leading the congressional panel that oversaw the US bank bailout. That government salary covered a period that began before her latest disclosure report, spanning from November 2008 through September 2010.
Those numbers were not required to be in her financial disclosure report but were provided by her campaign.
I suppose there is something to be said for transparency.
Warren’s compensation puts her in the top echelon of American earners.
A Democrat, Warren has pitched her campaign as a fight for the middle class, which she says has been left behind in the recession while the financial industry has been protected. Her salary and net worth have been a constant theme in Republican attacks against her.
Brown’s campaign argued yesterday that her high salary makes her “an elitist hypocrite.’’
Aren't you all, Brownie?
Within Warren’s $700,000 in teaching and consulting fees is a $43,938 payment she earned in 2010 as a consultant for Travelers Insurance company for cases involving asbestos victims.
“She is firmly entrenched in the same ‘1 percent’ she rails against, and she is more than happy to make tens of thousands of dollars defending powerful insurance companies against middle-class victims,’’ said Jim Barnett, a spokesman for Brown.
“Despite her claims, you don’t need to be a Harvard professor to know that insurance companies don’t hire bigtime lawyers because of their interest in protecting the little guy.’’ But Warren’s campaign said her work for Travelers was intended to make sure victims got a “fair shake’’ in compensation claims.
Democrats argue that Warren’s high salary does not detract from her conviction that the system needs change to protect the middle class.
“Elizabeth went from a maintenance man’s daughter to a Harvard law professor through hard work and determination,’’ said Kyle Sullivan, a Warren spokesman. “She’s made her life’s work understanding the pressures facing families like hers, standing up to the big banks and credit card companies.’’
Hey, if it is good enough for Sheldon Adelson, it is good enough for Warren.
Warren has also railed at inequities in the tax laws that favor multinational corporations over average wage-earners.
“A big company like GE pays nothing in taxes and we’re asking college students to take on even more debt to get an education,’’ she has said.
They not only pay nothing; they collected BILLIONS in "REFUNDS(?)." At least the kids are getting an education, even if the degree is worthless.
Warren’s financial disclosure form shows she owns stock and other investments worth more than $3 million, including between $100,000 and $250,000 in IBM stock. IBM is listed along with GE and 10 other major US companies that relied on loopholes to pay significantly less than the standard corporate rate between 2008 and 2010, according to a report from Citizens for Tax Justice, a politically liberal group.
The report said IBM effectively paid an estimated 3.8 percent in taxes over that period, legally avoiding the full 35 percent rate. The group contended that GE’s effective rate was negative 61.3 percent over that period.
Do you KNOW what that MEANS?
GE paid "no federal tax bill last year, even though it turned a $14.2 billion profit" that got GE a $3.2 billion refund.
Related: State Street Stealers
Also see: Fed Funnels Made Millions Off Mutual Fund Bailout
See where your tax loot IS going?
“Elizabeth has been clear and unequivocal that large corporations should pay their fair share of taxes - IBM included,’’ Sullivan said in an e-mail.
Warren’s newest financial disclosure form was filed late last month, a requirement of seeking office. In a previous disclosure, she reported earning $349,375 at Harvard in 2009, in addition to about $182,000 in royalties and consulting fees.
The newest disclosure data from Warren were first reported by the Associated Press.
Brown was most recently required to file in the spring. It showed he earned a $700,000 advance for his memoir, “Against All Odds.’’ He earns $174,000 annually as a US senator.
He will not be required to file again until May 15.
Warren’s form also showed that her house in Cambridge, owned with her husband, Harvard professor Bruce Mann, is worth between $1 million and $5 million. She did not have to disclose Mann’s salary. He is also a tenured professor at Harvard.
Brown and his wife, Gail Huff, have assets worth between about $1 million and $2.3 million - including their home in Wrentham and three Boston rental condos - according to the Associated Press, citing an analysis from the Center for Responsive Politics.
Were you able to hold on to your pos home, fellow citizen?
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Related: Nearly half in Congress are millionaires
Also see: Brown Brief
Brown, Warren in battle over ads
Brown launches campaign facing 'new world'
