Election Aftermath, 2nd Report Phil Lee, 1/19/07 Purtilo has posted his view of where gunny money was spent on political campaigns of election 2006 in his "Follow the Money" article.  Particularly interesting is his claims for spending by MARYLANDERS FOR THE PRESERVATION OF FIREARMS(MPFO).  According to his claim MPFO donated $50,905 directly to candidates while $40,728 was spent "on MPFO's independent campaign effort (e.g., direct mail, radio and other media to reach voting gunowners)."  MPFO is not independent of Jim Purtilo, so his report card on MPFO spending is his report card on himself.  This note is to present an independent review using the Maryland's State Administration Board of Election Laws (SABEL) campaign finance database to determine MPFO's spending over the past election cycle.  Reports of expenditures may be obtained from the SABEL form: http://mdelections.umbc.edu/campaign_finance/expenditures1.php On the form click "Payor:" bullet and enter: %Marylanders for the Under "Date:" click "From:" bullet and enter: 12/1/2002 and after "To" 12/1/2006 Up will come a page with "your search identified 1 account" -- click the underlying link and you see the Purtilo/MPFO's expenditure report with 118 expenditures for $103,722.25 over the 4 year election cycle. The Maryland campaign financial report shows $50,905 distributed to candidates matching Purtilo's claim in ("Follow the Money") and using a similar form on the contribution side we find MPFO collected $104,479.  The contributions to MPFO and from MPFO to candidates are listed in two tables below for the period 12/1/02 to 12/1/06 covering the recent Maryland state election cycle.  An additional $15,831 was recorded spent by MPFO on business expense items which were mostly paid to Fulton Armory for MPFO's raffle prizes.  The report shows $36,987 for MPFO's independent campaigns, not the $40,728 asserted in "Follow the Money" leaving approximately $3700 unaccounted. Most significantly, Purtilo/MPFO donated $50,905 (49%) of the $104,479 collected on supporting the campaigns of pro-RKBA politicians.  Some might think that is the primary purpose for MPFO, but not, it appears, Jim Purtilo.  So, Purtilo/MPFO donated a bit less than 1 out of every two dollars received in contributions to candidate in 80 contributions to campaign committees.  Another 15% (or $15,831) of the MPFO reported spending covered business expenses, primarily for raffle prizes.  MPFO spent 36% ($36,987) on direct mailing and printing of campaign literature for its "independent" political efforts.  Of that “independent” political effort amount, $29,600 was spent in 2006 with $12,600 of the $29k spent at the last moment in the campaign (on 11/6/06 -- the day before the election).  Purtilo does not reveal what campaigns MPFO spent $29,600 in 2006 to influence but we can estimate amounts used for some purposes by matching dates of the expenses and Purtilo/MPFO's actions near those dates.  On or about 7/11/06 Purtilo/MPFO mailed the "Dwyer least effective" card (you have to belong to Maryland Alert to access this link); on or about 7/24/06 Purtilo/MPFO mailed the "Dwyer absent in Europe" card; on or about 9/4/06 Purtilo/MPFO mailed the "Dwyer ineffective against gays" & "Holland endorsed by MPFO" cards.  The correlation of these mailing dates and reported spending by MPFO suggests MPFO spent about    $4500 ("Dwyer least effective") with SIR, Inc, PO Box 1071, Beltsville (same address as Tripwire)    $3229 ("Dwyer absent in Europe") to Minuteman Press    $7167 ("Dwyer ineffective against gays" & "Holland endorsed by MPFO") to Minuteman Press The last expense is likely split 45-55 between the Dwyer and the Holland mailings based on prior Dwyer mailings & printing cost.  That means MPFO likely spent close to $11,000 on a failed effort to defeat pro-gun Del. Dwyer and close to $4,000 on a failed effort to elect NRA representative Jennifer Palmer's dad (Holland) to the Maryland Senate in a race where all other candidates were recorded as being pro-gun.  All of these four mailings were made prior to the primary date of 9/12/06. Since MPFO set aside nearly $37k for its independent political effort, a reasonable question for Purtilo is why some of this money wasn't spent on the "important" Cadden race (more than 0), given his stated desire that Del. Cadden be re-elected?  Purtilo didn't donate any money personally to Del. Cadden and MPFO didn't contribute to her campaign.  Ironically MPFO did contribute money to Del. Dwyer (see the tables below) and Cadden only lost to Dwyer by about 25 votes.  A contribution of money to Cadden might have made the difference (and if Cadden won, Purtilo might not have needed Tarbutton as scapegoat).  The McMillan senate race also might have benefited from more support from Purtilo.  Instead Purtilo wasted money in the primary election attacking pro-gun Del. Dwyer and supporting NRA representative Palmer’s dad, Dutch Holland, for the Maryland Senate. Purtilo's embarrassment over spending scarce gunny money on the Holland campaign might make him pretend the spending never happened since that folly being known would damage his image as "master politico and policy wonk."  However, it can't be denied that Purtilo/MPFO backed the least likely winner (Holland had lost before in that district and had practically no financial support this time around) and spent gunny money in a race where a pro-gun winner was assured no matter who won (all the candidates were pro-gun).  No matter how embarrassing MPFO's mailing for Holland might be to Purtilo, it was direct in-kind support to a candidate and should be reported. Just prior to the election on 11/7/2006, MPFO spent $1,382 with Advantage, Inc.  This company primarily does phone bank callings but what calling was performed and for what purpose at this late date is unknown.  Also, Purtilo/MPFO paid Minuteman $11,228 in postage and direct mailing on 11/6/2006 (likely paying for a last minute mailing a bit earlier but for what purpose is unknown).  The lack of bragging from Purtilo over results from these two expenditures suggests no useful result was obtained from spending this "last-minute" $12,600 (12%). Based on available data about their 4 years of activist effort and their spending of gunny money on political campaigns, Purtilo/MPFO can take some credit for work to defeat Ehrlich and elect O'Malley.  Also, Purtilo/MPFO raised a fair amount of money which was directed to established politicians (49%) and failed independent efforts $29,600 (28% in 2006) with approximately 14.4% going into the two races to defeat Dwyer (10.5%) and elect Holland (3.8%) in the primary.  No money is recorded as spent to assist electing any wholly new pro-gun candidate and to defeat a grabber such as some of us did in 2002 in the Myers vs Taylor race. A part of the Purtilo/MPFO $36,947 (35%) direct mail spending went to the organization Software Interconnection Research (SIR), Inc. with the same address as Tripwire and having Jim Purtilo as resident agent.  It would be interesting to know what services (precisely) Purtilo/MPFO bought from Jim Purtilo's company with that money.
Contributions to MPFO 12/1/2002 to 12/1/2006
Date	Amount	Remark
12/2/2002	$45	Ticket purchases by Individuals
12/3/2002	100	Ticket purchases by Individuals
1/2/2003	12	Individual
1/2/2003	740	Ticket purchases by Individuals
1/6/2003	55	Ticket purchases by Individuals
1/7/2003	35	Ticket purchases by Individuals
1/8/2003	110	Ticket purchases by Individuals
1/16/2003	55	Ticket purchases by Individuals
1/16/2003	120	Ticket purchases by Individuals
2/19/2003	460	Ticket purchases by Individuals
3/18/2003	1060	Ticket purchases by Individuals
4/16/2003	340	Ticket purchases by Individuals
5/19/2003	2625	Ticket purchases by Individuals
6/17/2003	2290	Ticket purchases by Individuals
7/6/2003	420	Ticket purchases by Individuals
7/18/2003	110	Ticket purchases by Individuals
8/4/2003	4	Individual
8/4/2003	10	Ticket purchases by Individuals
8/4/2003	400	Ticket purchases by Individuals
8/4/2003	855	Ticket purchases by Individuals
8/15/2003	30	Ticket purchases by Individuals
8/18/2003	40	Ticket purchases by Individuals
9/4/2003	25	Ticket purchases by Individuals
9/18/2003	10	Ticket purchases by Individuals
7/6/2003	50	Ticket purchases by Individuals
12/8/2003	4	Individual
12/8/2003	515	Ticket purchases by Individuals
12/19/2003	410	Ticket purchases by Individuals
12/19/2003	820	Ticket purchases by Individuals
12/19/2003	1010	Ticket purchases by Individuals
12/26/2003	380	Ticket purchases by Individuals
12/30/2003	385	Ticket purchases by Individuals
12/31/2003	600	Ticket purchases by Individuals
1/5/2004	185	Ticket purchases by Individuals
1/5/2004	205	Ticket purchases by Individuals
1/6/2004	190	Ticket purchases by Individuals
1/7/2004	315	Ticket purchases by Individuals
1/8/2004	2	Individual
1/8/2004	375	Ticket purchases by Individuals
1/12/2004	500	Ticket purchases by Individuals
1/13/2004	90	Ticket purchases by Individuals
1/14/2004	40	Ticket purchases by Individuals
1/20/2004	320	Ticket purchases by Individuals
1/21/2004	120	Ticket purchases by Individuals
1/23/2004	985	Ticket purchases by Individuals
1/27/2004	350	Ticket purchases by Individuals
2/4/2004	185	Ticket purchases by Individuals
3/2/2004	17	Individual
3/2/2004	2490	Ticket purchases by Individuals
3/4/2004	1110	Ticket purchases by Individuals
3/5/2004	210	Ticket purchases by Individuals
3/9/2004	35	Ticket purchases by Individuals
3/10/2004	230	Ticket purchases by Individuals
3/17/2004	65	Ticket purchases by Individuals
4/14/2004	5	Individual
4/14/2004	3980	Ticket purchases by Individuals
4/26/2004	2315	Ticket purchases by Individuals
7/15/2004	700	Ticket purchases by Individuals
7/29/2004	0.09	Individual
7/29/2004	5205	Ticket purchases by Individuals
9/17/2004	240	Ticket purchases by Individuals
9/30/2004	7	Individual
9/30/2004	1290	Ticket purchases by Individuals
10/5/2004	675	Ticket purchases by Individuals
10/5/2004	1260	Ticket purchases by Individuals
10/6/2004	150	Ticket purchases by Individuals
10/6/2004	650	Ticket purchases by Individuals
10/6/2004	670	Ticket purchases by Individuals
10/6/2004	980	Ticket purchases by Individuals
10/7/2004	15	Ticket purchases by Individuals
10/12/2004	45	Ticket purchases by Individuals
10/20/2004	455	Ticket purchases by Individuals
10/25/2004	3	Individual
10/25/2004	750	Ticket purchases by Individuals
10/28/2004	70	Ticket purchases by Individuals
11/4/2004	110	Ticket purchases by Individuals
11/15/2004	8	Individual [Remarks: to correct error 04/14/2004]
11/15/2004	820	Ticket purchases by Individuals
12/6/2004	7	Individual
12/6/2004	2000	Ticket purchases by Individuals
12/7/2004	420	Ticket purchases by Individuals
12/20/2004	335	Ticket purchases by Individuals
12/27/2004	60	Ticket purchases by Individuals
12/30/2004	25	Ticket purchases by Individuals
1/5/2005	30	Ticket purchases by Individuals
1/11/2005	100	Ticket purchases by Individuals
1/18/2005	200	Ticket purchases by Individuals
2/18/2005	3495	Ticket purchases by Individuals
3/18/2005	2	Individual
3/18/2005	3420	Ticket purchases by Individuals
4/18/2005	1305	Ticket purchases by Individuals
5/18/2005	510	Ticket purchases by Individuals
6/30/2005	530	Other Income [Remarks: Raffle prize]
7/18/2005	2680	Ticket purchases by Individuals
8/18/2005	1385	Ticket purchases by Individuals
9/1'9/2005	2155	Ticket purchases by Individuals
11/18/2005	3	Individual
11/18/2005	3015	Ticket purchases by Individuals