Here are the donors who gave the most to the Draft Carson Super PAC in 2014:
Mark Oldfield, owner and CEO of Source Support Services, a Georgia IT firm. Oldfield shares the No. 1 spot as top donor to the Draft Carson super PAC in 2014, giving $101,520.
Mike Horan, president of Ajax Paving Industries, a concrete and asphalt firm with offices in Michigan and Florida. Horan also donated $101,520.
Harry Bettis, an Idaho rancher who supports Republican candidates and causes. Donation: at least $71,000, which appears to be his largest contribution to any candidate.
Caster Family Trust, a family operation in San Diego linked with Terence Caster, who owns A-1 Self Storage, a chain that has been boycotted because Caster helped fund efforts to ban gay marriage in California. Donation to Carson: at least $50,000.
Jeanette Quilhot, co-owner of an Indiana horse farm. Donation: at least $80,000.
Ben Carson Earnings:
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson and his wife, Candy, earned between $8.9 million and $27 million in a recent 16-month period, largely fueled by book royalties, speaking engagements and Mr. Carson’s service on the board of directors for two big companies.
The figures were included in Mr. Carson’s personal financial disclosure, a copy of which was viewed by the Wall Street Journal.
From the start of 2014 through May 3 of this year, Mr. Carson delivered 141 paid speeches, earning just over $4 million, according to the disclosure. Since announcing his campaign last month, the retired neurosurgeon has continued to deliver paid speeches that were contracted prior to his candidacy, his spokesman said. Mr. Carson will deliver four more speeches this year, the last one in November.
Ben Carson Expenditures:
$61,000 for advanced technology to allow multi-channel, vertical and horizontal communication across the organization.
$20,500 for electronic billboards in the Baltimore, Maryland area and in Iowa, site of the first-in-the-nation presidential caucus.
$140,000 for four separate mailings and one e-mail to the 121,000 Iowans who have previously participated in the Iowa Republican
presidential caucus. This effort was instrumental in helping Ben Carson win two critical presidential polls in Iowa—one in Linn County (Cedar Rapids), the other in Polk County (Des Moines).
$350,000 for ads on the Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity national talk radio shows. Those early ads played a critical role in giving credibility to the candidacy of Dr. Carson and in persuading Dr. Carson to run.
$19,000 on a booth and special promotional items, etc. at the 2014 CPAC asking attendees to clamor for Ben Carson and succeeded in putting Dr. Carson in 3rd place in that important presidential straw poll.
$6,000 for full page ads in national conservative publications.
$532,000 for radio ads to black and Hispanic Americans in Louisiana and North Carolina prior to the 2014 election.
$391,000 for the purchase and distribution of 98,000 static stickers, 1.2 million bumper strips, 232,000 car magnets, 930,000 posters, 10,000 retractable banners, 1 million booklets, 43,000 copies of Ben Carson’s America the Beautiful book, 11,000 copies of his Gifted Hands book, 10,000 copies of his One Nation book, and 48,000 buttons.
$494,000 for 350,000 copies of a condensed version of Ben Carson’s personal biography Gifted Hands that has the new title, My Life.
$188,000 for 400,000 copies of a new paperback book by John Sousa that will be distributed by volunteers and sent through the mail to folks who do not ordinarily participate in the delegate selection process.