F&M Clean Up

Rick Reiff's Inside OC column in the OC Business Journal reports a big score for everyone's favorite local PR firm:

Equal-opportunity political consultants Arnold Forde and Stewart Mollrich were on the losing side of last week's state propositions, but for them, at least, there's consolation.  According to a compilation of election filings provided to this column, their Newport Beach firm, Forde and Mollrich, took in $2.8 million from the pro-Prop. 74-77 campaigns.  That makes them easily the highest paid consultants on either side of the battle. 

Rick also reminds us that F&M handles Larry Agran and the Great Park at $50k/month.

Comments

[Blog Watcher]

You have to love it when politics and capitalism intersect.

[Tom Kaptain]

If anyone thinks that 2.8 million is the most any consultant made in this election they certainly don't understand the commission system on media buys.

[Rick Reiff]

Re Tom Kaptain's observation:
Depends on what you mean by "consultant." F&M easily tops the list of "general" (non-media) consultants in the data I saw.
But it would appear a couple of media buyers (AKP for the winning nays and Media Partnership for the ayes) cleared more.

[Tom Kaptain]

Most general consultants in charge of a campaign have deals with all of their vendors where they get commissions back on all purchases including media buys.

This money does not get reported, although some people with legal backgrounds think it is supposed to under the law. That's a question that has never been pursued by legal authorities as far as I know and there are some legal interpretations that could back up either side of an argument.

Just in case anyone is wondering, I do some occasional consulting work, I put into my contracts that I will not accept commissions from any vendors and there are other consultants on both sides who follow the same practice.

My point in posting was simply that most people in politics are not aware of all of the ways consultants wind up getting paid and because of that often don't hire good consultants that they think are expensive where in reality they are cheaper than the person they do hire, but they get their fee directly, not through commissions. Traditionally 20% of the money raised by a campaign winds up going to staff in one form or another and for top of the ticket races or expensive ballot measures, that figure usually get's to 25% because they often have a need for more specialized help like press officers and opposition research and what not. I would assume those amounts basically fit what was spent in this last election.