Firm gets big cut of (GOP) campaign donations

Firm gets big cut of campaign donations
GOP candidates see little of funds raised; Some clients,
donors unaware of numbers

By Frank Phillips
Globe Staff / June 29, 2008

Charles A. Morse, a conservative Republican gadfly from Brookline,
ran a brief write-in campaign to unseat US Representative Barney
Frank in 2006. It fizzled completely when he received just 145
votes in a primary and dropped out two months before the general
election.

"I never saw him," Frank said when asked about Morse's presence
in the campaign.

Yet the political fund-raising firm that ran Morse's campaign
finances reported that it raised more than $700,000 for his race,
much of it from GOP contributors across the country eager to help
defeat a Massachusetts liberal - and some of it donated well after
Morse abandoned the race.

A review of campaign reports shows that, rather than spending that
money in the Fourth Congressional District, 96 percent of the funds
raised in Morse's name were used to pay a politically connected
direct-mail firm in Washington, BMW Direct Inc., and a coterie of
BMW Direct's affiliates and contractors. The firms specialize in
national fund-raising appeals on behalf of conservative Republican
candidates and right-wing causes.

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