I’ve spent some time digging into Rev. Luke Torian’s campaign finances on VPAP in the race for the 52nd House Dist. open seat and discovered some very interesting things.
Despite all the talk of Torian having outraised former Dumfries Town Councilman Rafael Lopez by some astronomical figure of 5 to 1 or so, that is not the case at all. For the general election, Torian has raised $87,166 to Lopez’s $50,136, so the disparity is not really that big.
Then, I looked to see how much of that $87K is in in-kinds. It brings him down to below $50K in real cash raised. Rafael has raised just over $35K in real cash (full disclosure, it looks like I’m Lopez’s second biggest donor with my $2,500 in-kind consulting donation.) The bottom line is, less than $15K separates Lopez and Torian in real cash raised for the general election.
Here are Torian’s in-kinds for the General Election (there are a few smaller ones out there, too, that I did not include.)
Democratic Party – Virginia House Caucus
Contributions Totaling $32,692
Amount Date Committee Description
- $1,898 08/31/2009 Torian for Delegate – Luke In-Kind: Campaign Staff
- $1,898 08/15/2009 Torian for Delegate – Luke In-Kind: Campaign Staff
- $10,800 08/06/2009 Torian for Delegate – Luke In-Kind: Polling Data
- $1,898 08/01/2009 Torian for Delegate – Luke In-Kind: Campaign Staff
- $1,898 07/15/2009 Torian for Delegate – Luke In-Kind: Campaign Staff
- $12,300 07/14/2009 Torian for Delegate – Luke In-Kind: Research
- $2,000 06/30/2009 Torian for Delegate – Luke In-Kind: Campaign Staff
Kevin T English
Contributions Totaling $5,000
Amount Date Committee Description
- $1,000 08/31/2009 Torian for Delegate – Luke In-Kind: Office Space
- $1,000 07/30/2009 Torian for Delegate – Luke In-Kind: Office Space
- $1,500 06/30/2009 Torian for Delegate – Luke In-Kind: Office Space
- $1,500 06/30/2009 Torian for Delegate – Luke In-Kind: Furniture
Titus Simmons
Contributions Totaling $1,000
Amount Date Committee Description
- $1,000 08/31/2009 Torian for Delegate – Luke In-Kind: Treasurer
Then, I looked at where the cash that he has raised is coming from. Here are some items of interest –
Amount Name Location
- $2,000 Amagamated Transit Union Local 869 District Heights, MD
- $2,000 Va Education Assn Richmond
- $1,000 American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Washington, DC
- $1,000 Va State AFL-CIO Henrico
Boy, quite a chunk of union money flowing into Torian’s campaign there.
Here’s my favorite contributor –
- $400 Affairs Remembered LLC Dumfries
Now, where is his money GOING?
Donations from Torian Committees
Reported by Democratic Party – Virginia House Caucus
Campaign Contributions Totaling $20,000Amount Date Description
$20,000 09/25/2009 Cash Donation
You’d think if this were for a mailing or something else, it would be described as such, not just a “cash donation.” Plus, it was under the VPAP tab of contributions out, not the one for services or the one for vendors. So, exactly why is he giving $20K to the House Democratic Caucus? Especially when he’s only raised $15K more than Lopez in cash.
And my favorite contributor returns as well, this time as a recipient –
Payments to Affairs Remembered LLC
Amount Date Description
$270 01/18/2009 Inaugural ticket
Nice that Torian saw fit to have his campaign pick up the cost of an Inaugural ticket. Oh, he is also using campaign funds to buy himself lunch!
Payments to Tizano’s Italian Restaurant
Amount Date Description
$27 07/09/2009 Lunch meeting
(Tiziano’s is located practically across the street from his church that he preaches at. The typo on the name of the restaurant is their’s not mine.)
Now for my absolutely favorite find on his entire campaign finance report. The moron reported buying dog biscuits at Dollar General!
Payments to Dollar General Stores
Amount Date Description
$3 07/03/2009 Dog Biscuits
This kind of personal use of funds is what helped bring NY Gov. Mario Cuomo down back in 1994 when I was doing op-research for George Pataki. But Cuomo was using funds to buy doggie bedding or some other nonsense like that. Still, it made for great fodder on the cover of the NYPost the next day…
Next up, the nondisclosure disclosure of Torian’s personal finances…
Filed under: 2009 Elections, Democrats, Prince William County Politics, Virginia General Assembly
[...] it doesn’t rise to quite that level, but it is pretty darned hilarious to see Luke Torian spending campaign funds on, of all things, dog biscuits. I guess if you don’t give enough biscuits to Fido the [...]
I remember when I ran for the House in 1993, a few eyebrows were raised over the numerous $12 and $13 charges for pizza from various delivery services.
Well, we had to feed our volunteers somehow!
As for dog biscuits, I’ll leave that to your readers’ imaginations …..
I dog’s got to eat.
Check out the date on the dog biscuits, Jim. They’re to pass out on the Fourth of July. Pretty standard parade item.
So you are saying that the Torian campaign is b-b-b-bad to the bone?
This is so stupid it hurts. He bought dog biscuits for a parade! Who cares. Get a life! Easily one of the stupidest blog posts I’ve ever seen, and that is saying something. Get a life! And if you were even the slightest bit witty, when you posted this bullshit story you would have titled it “Campaign Finance Reports Tell and interested “Tail”. But you aren’t creative enough, you are just some low rent political hack!
Look, we here enjoy a bad pun just as much as anyone else, but the main focus of this entire story is not the dog biscuits (which still remains pretty funny in and of itself.) We have plenty of clever headlines and had we wanted to go that route, we would have. The main point here is that Torian does not enjoy this commanding financial lead that some people think that he does. There is basically parity among the two campaigns in actual dollars raised. The dog biscuits part of the title was to express my incredulity that this would even be an itemized listing.
And seriously, dog biscuits? Even if that was for the parade — and there still is no proof of that, only speculation — dog biscuits is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard to be passing out at a parade. Balloons? Of course! Candy? Sure! But dog biscuits? C’mon. I’ve been around campaigns at every level for over 20 years now from a low level volunteer to a high ranking staffer on a presidential campaign and have never seen this. As someone pointed out to me earlier, Torian didn’t even spring for decent dog biscuits, instead opting for ones from Dollar General that would likely give dogs the runs.
Is that it? Did you see the expenditure for paper clips?
Paper clips I wouldn’t question (and typically it would come under a broader category such as office supplies.)
As I’ve previously noted, the big story here is that Lopez and Torian are within $15K of each other in actual funds raised.
[...] without offering any explanation or advanced warning, 52nd Dist. House candidate Rev. Luke “Milkbones” Torian skipped Thursday night’s NAACP debate with former Dumfries Town Councilman [...]
[...] right, 51st Dist. Dem candidate Rev. Luke “Milkbones” Torian blew off the NAACP debate against former Dumfries Town Councilman Rafael Lopez the [...]
Nice article. Thanks for share.