Wow, talk about going through money just to get crushed.

Tom Allen: The Biggest Loser!

I would like to note that the Allen totals do not include that portion of the Coordinated Campaign expenses devoted to promoting Allen's candidacy. It certainly does not include the approximately $100,000 that the Democratic Party spent in the effort to remove my name from the ballot, nor the reported $5,000,000 that Senator Schumer's Senate Campaign Committee spent on video spots for Allen.

With regard to the "official vote" total for Declared write-in candidates reported by the Secretary of State it is clearly not accurate. I have presented evidence to the Secretary that in a substantial number of communities votes for Declared write-in candidates were either not counted, not recorded or the totals not forwarded to the Secretary. The Secretary is looking into this breach of ballot integrity.

Peace,
Herb

Those who were paying attention know that Herb Hoffman earned ballot access but then saw his name removed from the ballot after the Maine Democratic Party convinced the Secretary of State to impose an after-the-fact ruling on the petition-gathering process that resulted in the Maine Supreme Court eventually ordering Hoffman's name removed from the ballot. (Ironically, had that same ruling been applied to a challenge against the Democratic Party candidate's petitions, he, too, most likely would have been knocked off the ballot as well.)

The total expenditure of the Hoffman for Senate campaign, through Jan. 12, 2009 when the last bill was paid, is $42,818.84. The Secretary of State reported 568 votes cast for Hoffman. We know the vote was higher because we have in hand a number of statements from people who properly wrote in Hoffman's name and checked the box, but whose votes were not recorded. But using the Secretary of state's figures, and the total expenditures, Hoffman's cost per vote was, indeed, $75.39.

However, of that expended total of $42,818.84, $21,381.20 (49.93 percent) was spent on legal fees and court costs incurred in Hoffman's attempt to defend himself against the Maine Democratic Party's actions to deny him his right to ballot access.

Thus the amount of money Hoffman actually spent on campaign activities (including obtaining ballot access in the first place) was $21,437.64. At that rate, his cost per vote drops to $37.74, and likely would be even lower if all the votes he received had been properly recorded.

David Bright, treasurer
Hoffman for Senate