Joe Trippi got between $3 -4.5 mil from Dean campaign

[mouse7]

"...Many Dean supporters have been critical of the ad campaign, particularly in Iowa. Some questioned the arrangements by which Mr. Trippi forfeited a salary as a campaign manager but collected commissions — said to be as high as 15 percent in some cases — based on advertising buys...."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/29/politics/campaign/29DEAN.html?pagewanted=2&hp

What do you say? Trippi knew people were sending Dean their lunch money $5 bucks at a time, and he still took the money and ran with it.

[Bombtrack]

1. Wow, I thought we were supposed to trust how Dean managed money

Better than a senator or General because he governed a state with a population the size of Austin and probably a smaller and more simplistic economy

[kaitykaity]

5. Oh Yeah, I'm feelin' the Dean Luv.

I'll save that cheap shot and take it at
*whoever* at the first opportunity.

Thanks!

[jenk]

2. highway robbery!

that's more than Sharpton has raised the entire campaign!

[BootinUp]

3. It stinks to high heaven of course

This is the team y'all wanted in the WH?

[mouse7]

6. To put this simply and legally... NOT NOW.

(I don't need to ring up warnings, so this is as "heated" as my comments will get.)

I wasn't "committed" to Dean, but I was pretty sympathetic. I was a Wellstone person, and haven't been able to get reved up about a campaign since he was lost.

That said... this news isn't quite registering yet. I'm just kinda stunned.

[jpgray]

4. That is a significant chunk of change

If he looted Howard's campaign, I take back the praise I gave Trippi.

[goodhue]

7. no suprise

except to the suckers who donated in earnest

[winga222]

8. That's standard commission

I'm not by any means defending taking the full 15% agency commission. Most of us in advertising work on some combination of reduced commission (maybe 4% - 8%) with other compensation in place for ad creation, account service, etc. However, someone would have to examine the whole deal with Trippi's agency to really see if the overall compensation was out-of-line or not. Buying that much media in that many markets is very, very time intensive, and I have a feeling they were continually altering the media mix, the message, etc. The staff of the agency would expect to be paid, unless they chose to be full-time, unpaid volunteers. Not to defend Trippi, you understand. It's just there's likely to be more to this than the headlines.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

10. Is it standard to take the commission and also be the person to decide

to spend the money in the first place?

[AP]

11. That's not standard compensation for campaign managers...

...according to the article I read months ago about Trippi's pay structure.

I believe the equivalent posts in the other campaigns paid 150K-300K annual salaries to manage the campaigns.

This is definitely off the scale.

Dean, exercising the wisdom of a business friendly chief executive who doesn't mind vertical integration hired a go to manage the purse who was also a recipient of payments (ad buys). Trippi wored two hats. The fox was watching the hen house, if you know what I mean.

It's crazy that Dean let him play treasurer and Enron at the same time. What else was the guy going to do? He got himself real paid.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

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[AP]

12. June wasn't the only month Dean bought advertising.

He only had to spend that much in 3 of the other 12 months of the campaign throughout the country, and Trippi would have been nearing 3-4 mil.

Remember when Trippi ran those adds in Texas last spring? You know, to, uhm, scare Bush. Wonder what that made him?

[Hoppin_Mad]

13. Please document the source for your $3-4.5 Million claim -nt-

[mouse7]

14. It's at the top of the thread.

NY Times link.

[Hoppin_Mad]

18. BS Those figures are not in there - Documented ad expenses are 10 Million

Your figure is nothing but conjecture, and a smear against a good man.

Pathetic

[isbister]

15. Poor Howard

What do you say? Trippi knew people were sending Dean their lunch money $5 bucks at a time, and he still took the money and ran with it.

Dean knew people were sending their lunch money, $5 bucks at a time, and he still made the deal with Trippi.

Everybody's done Howard wrong. Kerry, Gephardt, Clark, the media,the people of Iowa, the people of New Hampshire, Joe Trippi....

Poor Howard.

[copithorne]

16. The New York Times Link

Does NOT say that Trippi collected 3 - 4.5 million.

This seems to be speculation based on the idea that Trippi may have collected agency fees of 15%.

First, the 15% fee is also speculative. And who's doing the speculating? Media Whore Jodi Wilgoren who doesn't have much respect for facts.

Also, that would be 15% of ad buys, not 15% of the Dean campaign's income -- which is where he would seem to get 3 million.

I don't think Howard Dean has yet spent ten million on advertising.

[joshcryer]

17. I don't think so either.

I'm quite skepitcal without major sources. It's no wonder Yahoo! dropped the story from it's main page.

[Moderator]

19. locking

claim unsubstantiated by the article.