Pederson-s Self-funding Deserves Close Scrutiny

By Matt Salmon $4.6 million. For many of us, thats more money than well ever see in our lifetimes. For liberal strip mall developer Jim Pederson, thats how much of his own personal fortune hes dumped into his Senate campaign. And hes just getting started. When a millionaire candidate like Pederson attempts to influence the outcome of an election with his or her personal dollars, that candidate has to follow certain reporting rules to the Federal Election Commission. Unfortunately for Arizona voters trying to get an accurate look at his attempt to buy this election, Pederson has been less than enthusiastic about complying with federal law. In the 127 days between March 30, 2006 and August 4, 2006 Jim Pederson contributed $4,591,098.00 of his own money to his campaign; that amounts to an astonishing rate of $1,506.27 per hour, or $0.42 per second. What Pederson did not do is accurately report those contributions to the FEC in a timely manner. A review of FEC records reveals that Pederson failed to report his personal contributions within the required 24-hour window, leaving Arizonans without an accurate picture of the effect Pedersons money is playing in this election. But dont worry. The Arizona Republican Party is here to help. In addition to filing a formal complaint with the FEC, weve launched the Pederson Buck-O-Meter on our Web site (azgop.org) to help track and also predict the multi-millionaires personal contributions to his campaign. The Buck-O-Meters accuracy was verified when Pederson made his most recent contribution of $207,000 to his campaign on August 4th. The Buck-O-Meter predicted the total Pederson would have contributed to his campaign on that day within 1.5 percent. Since the Pederson campaign has been so negligent in meeting the FEC requirements, the Pederson Buck-O-Meter is the only tracking device readily available to the public. Pedersons recent personal contribution of $207,000 brought his total contributions to $4,591,098.00. Under the formula of $0.42 per second, the Pederson Buck-O-Meter predicted that on midnight of August 4, 2006, Pedersons personal contributions would total $4,522,179.83, a margin of error less than two percent. The Arizona Republican Party will continue to maintain the Pederson Buck-O-Meter to provide voters the transparency that Pederson will not. Each time Pederson pulls money from his strip mall fortune to fund his campaign, the Pederson Buck-O-Meter will be updated to reflect his new rate of personal contributions. Matt Salmon is chairman of the Arizona Republican Party