Corrupt Repug congressman's campaign is in deep shit.

[Guest Harry Hope]

From The Sacramento Bee, 7/16/07:

http://www.sacbee.com/111/v-print/story/274799.html

 

Doolittle slipping as big-money draw

 

His campaign is in debt and raising less as rival Brown in gaining

steam.

 

By David Whitney - Bee Washington Bureau

 

 

Rep. John Doolittle's cachet with big Washington, D.C., campaign

financiers seems to have plummeted in the aftermath of the FBI's April

13 raid on his Oakton, Va., house, and the eight-term Roseville

Republican heads toward the 2008 election season with his campaign

still in debt and receipts on the decline.

 

Meanwhile, the campaign of Democrat Charlie Brown, who came within 3

points of defeating Doolittle in November, is gaining steam.

 

Brown's campaign raised almost twice as much as Doolittle's in the

last three months and ended the six-month mark with a net cash balance

of $251,000.

 

Doolittle posted $32,250 in debts.

 

Doolittle's biggest expense during the three-month period was $50,000

in fundraising payments to Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions, a

company owned by his wife and operated out of the couple's house.

 

It was the company's records that the FBI was after in the April raid,

conducted as part of the Justice Department's ongoing investigation

into the Doolittles' relationship with convicted lobbyist Jack

Abramoff.

 

Even with the hefty campaign payments to Julie Doolittle's company,

Sierra Dominion still was owed more than $76,000 in commissions from

the 2006 race.

 

The Doolittle campaign's second largest expense was $30,000 to defense

attorney David Barger's law office, bringing the campaign's attorney's

fees for defending the congressman in the last year to more than

$130,000.

 

It is possible Doolittle's legal expenses were higher.

 

Late last month, he formed a legal defense fund to raise money

separately for those expenses, and costs for the two law firms

representing him no longer will be reported as campaign expenses.

 

The fund also has been authorized by the House ethics committee to pay

the legal expenses of his wife.

 

In press conferences with reporters over the last month or so,

Doolittle had alluded to the fact that he and his wife's connection to

the Abramoff scandal was drying up money in Washington, but the filing

of the midyear report with the Federal Election Commission on Sunday

night was the first indication of how deep the loss has been.

 

 

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This Repug's got one foot out the door and headed for a jail cell.

 

Harry