Perry Spends $1 Million in First Half of 2011

Gov. Rick Perry, who is considering a run for the White House, has spent nearly $1 million in state campaign funds since January, shelling out thousands of dollars for out-of-state travel, hotels and meetings, records released Friday show.

The expenditures were included in campaign finance reports filed, as required by law, with the Texas Ethics Commission. The figures were released on the same day that presidential candidates revealed their hauls for the second quarter.

President Barack Obama led all the would-be Republican challengers, pulling in $86 million for his campaign and for the Democratic Party, according to The Associated Press. GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney led the Republican field with $18.4 million raised in the second quarter.

Perry is not in that game — yet. If he does run, he won’t be able to raise unlimited amounts of cash from wealthy supporters anymore, as he can in Texas. Federal law limits individual donations to $2,500, or $5,000 per couple.

Perry raised $392,546.25 between January and June, the report shows. More than a third of that came from a single donor, Michael Linn, executive chairman of Linn Energy of Houston. He gave the governor $150,000 on June 29, according to the filings. He has $2.1 million in the bank.

While the Republican establishment waits for the Texas governor to decide if he’ll start raising federal money, Perry has at least two state fundraisers scheduled, one in San Angelo at the Brentwood Country Club on July 26, and another at the Austin Club on Aug. 9.

Perry is seeking donations of up to $100,000, which comes with several tickets to a private reception with him, at the Austin event.

The Texans for Rick Perry campaign account reported expenditures of $968,092.45 between January and June. Among the expenses were $83,306 to the consulting firm of the governor’s chief political guru, Dave Carney. There are also large expenditures on various fixed costs, such as campaign salaries, rent, telephones, printing and the like.

In the comparable period in 2009, when Perry was gearing up for a re-election battle, the governor spent $2.2 million. In 2010, when Perry spent heavily on campaign advertising to defeat two well-funded opponents, he shelled out almost $19 million in the first half of the year, records show.

The latest report, for the first half of this year, shows Texans For Rick Perry paid for the following:

• $104,893.75 to Goldsmith Team LLC, a private aircraft company, for air travel.
• $34,279.08 to Ginny's Printing for campaign materials.
• $11,527.77 to Continental Airlines for airfare, including to New York and New Orleans, in June.
• $9,000 to RMM Online Advertising for campaign mobile messaging service.
• $3,656 to American Airlines for air travel.
• $2,343 to the Beverly Hilton Hotel on June 29.
• $1,020.34 to the Roosevelt Hotel in New York for campaign lodging.