What did Raul Grijalva spend his money on? He ate it

What did Raul Grijalva spend his money on? He ate it.



What did Raul Grijalva spend his money on? He ate it.
Rep. Raul Grijalva had raised over $550,000 for his campaign, and yet as of August 4th, he had less than $80,000 cash on hand. What happened to all that money? To date, Mr. Grijalva hasn’t run any television advertising. He hasn’t flooded the district with mailers or radio. So where did all that money go? He ate it.

At the end of the last filing period, Rep. Grijalva reported spending $90,959 on food and entertainment. In addition, Mr. Grijalva had spent $104,849 for professional fundraising services. That’s more than 35 percent of his total campaign contributions wasted on fundraising and fancy dinners.

Most professional fundraisers charge 5 to 10 percent for their services, Mr. Grijalva paid close to 20 percent for those services. And while buying dinner for your staff and volunteers as well as providing food at fundraising events is common on the campaign trail, it’s unheard of for a major campaign to spend nearly a sixth of their total contributions on food and entertainment.

“A half million dollars in Southern Arizona can go a long way,” noted Ruth McClung. “So, frankly, we’re glad that Mr. Grijalva decided to waste more than a third of his donor’s money on unproductive spending. Although I suppose for anyone familiar with Rep. Grijalva’s profligate waste of taxpayer funds, this should come as no surprise.”

Rep. Grijalva has never shown much respect for the money hardworking taxpayers are forced to give to the government each year. He’s voted for just about every reckless spending program cooked up in Washington, turned more than his share of pork on the spit, and now he’s advocating for an additional $50 billion federal stimulus program.

“The simple fact is that Arizonans cannot trust this man with their money,” McClung continued. “He’s a career politician who has never had to worry where his next paycheck was going to come from.” McClung paused, “Well, at least until now.”

It is this kind of disconnect from hardworking families that allows Mr. Grijalva to casually block the Superior, AZ Mine project which enjoys significant local support, and would create an estimated 6,000 direct and indirect jobs. People are out of work, families are struggling to put food on the table, and Raul Grijalva is spending tens of thousands of dollars entertaining his friends at the National Democratic Club.

Mr. Grijalva even managed to spend $4,807 in one night at Bedroxx, a Tucson bowling ally. We all love bowling, and Bedroxx is a fantastic place to take your family for a night of fun.

So we have to ask Mr. Grijalva one question: how many frames does $4,807 get you?