Obama gives campaign staff extra pay, Blackberrys, laptops

[ArcturusMengsk]

New York Daily News

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama ended his campaign so flush with cash he's telling staffers to keep the change - and then some.
Long-suffering political footsoldiers who toiled tirelessly, at least since September, to put Obama in the White House recently learned they will be getting extra paychecks worth a month's salary, the Daily News has learned.

And boy, are they grateful.
"I think it's a very nice gesture for people who slaved away and sacrificed for the past year," said one pleased ex-staffer.
"It was totally unexpected, and you can't believe how helpful this is with the holidays coming," the lower-level worker said. "A lot of people thought they were going to be broke and would have to try to find a job in this rotten economy. It's a huge help."

In addition to the cold cash, staffers also have the option of keeping their campaign-issued computers and BlackBerrys - but must pay income tax on the hardware if they do.
It's an almost unprecedented move at the end of a presidential campaign, even a winning one, because usually they are flat broke, having taken public financing and gone through every last penny.

But Obama skipped public financing and raised more than $600 million, including more than $150 million in September, and nearly $40 million in the first couple of weeks of October.
If this silver parachute approaches his September payroll, it'll be worth upward of $3 million.

Oh noez! There he goes, spreading the wealth around!

Good on him. If my donation helps a staffer make ends meet this holiday season, I am all in favor of it. His campaign did the same for schools as well:

... "Tens of thousands of dollars of resources have been put into schools across the United States in less than four days," said Valarie Swanson, marketing director for iloveschools.com. "The Obama campaign was specific that they wanted all their resources to go to schools" ...

The Obama campaign contacted Swanson's organization a couple of weeks before the election was over, with one requirement -- that 100 percent of the leftover campaign goods from specified offices would be pumped into school districts ...

"It was like Christmas in November," Jean Schmalzried, director of federal programs for the Sto-Rox School District in Pennsylvania, said of getting a phone call the morning after the election by an Obama staffer. "This has never happened before."

Obama's Pittsburgh campaign office donated to her school district at least five flatbed trucks of office supplies, including 12 Dell computers, multiple 17-inch LCD monitors and three printers. Much of the equipment was brand new, given to the schools unopened in boxes ...

Of course, this has pragmatic political effects as well: many of these staffers will probably volunteer again in 2012, and may even bring their friends; and it doesn't hurt to earn the good will of young children who will probably one day be Democratic voters, and school officials, who already are, through gift-giving.

[Akumz Razor]

Wow, this is unprecedentedly generous. I'd been wondering what the Obama Campaign was going to with their leftover funds.

[CmdrWilkens]

The article has it right, this is unprecedented and not even because nobody realized the potential political pay dirt of donating money and equipment to schools. These campaigns are usually flat out broke when they finish and yet this one not only raise and spent huge sums of money it do so in a way that left some over at the end. If anybody wants to know how you run a company this is it: they sold a product and spent less than what they sold it for.

[irishmick79]

The article has it right, this is unprecedented and not even because nobody realized the potential political pay dirt of donating money and equipment to schools. These campaigns are usually flat out broke when they finish and yet this one not only raise and spent huge sums of money it do so in a way that left some over at the end. If anybody wants to know how you run a company this is it: they sold a product and spent less than what they sold it for.

It's a sad commentary on the state of the country when simply observing economic principles one can learn in Econ 101 needs to be held up as a shining example for all to see.