Sarah Palin’s political action committee, known as SarahPAC, has contributed more money fortifying its own existence or to Palin personally instead of funding GOP candidates across the country. Despite SarahPAC’s recent comments that donations to the committee will be used to “fight against liberals like Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders,” and to “stop the illegal invasion,” and further help “defund and investigate Planned Parenthood,” among others, the committee has never given more than a small percentage of its income to the Republicans it supports.
Although the SarahPAC recently reported that it has $562,000 cash on hand, which is better than what the majority of political committees could hope for, it is the lowest total since Palin founded the committee in 2009. Since late 2009, SarahPAC has almost always reported greater than $1 million on its books and has never had less than $800,000 in its accounts. The decline in funds coincides with Palin’s falling out of the public eye. In June, Fox News decided not to renew Palin’s contract as a contributor and the Sarah Palin Channel, a subscription only, online television feed, is no longer running as of this week.
Despite the SarahPAC’s decline in funds, Palin still has loyal followers, especially on social media. Palin is an avid Facebook user and over 4.4 million people have liked her page, where she routinely posts comments about the SarahPAC.
If SarahPAC only contributes a tiny percentage of its money to Republican candidates, the question arises as to where the rest of the expenditures are going. The committee reports a number of pricy expenditures including the following: over $230,000 on consultants; almost $140,000 on direct mail; approximately $82,000 on travel and accommodations for Palin and her crew, including airfare, hotels, car rentals and travel agents; about $48,000 on speech writing; and almost $37,500 on Internet fundraising.
Palin recently posted on her Facebook page that “thanks to [her follower’s] support, SarahPAC has grown to become one of the strongest forces within conservative politics. Together we are working hard to support and elect conservative leaders who will fight for what’s right in America!”
Apparently much of the “support” she receives by way of donations goes to the fund itself and to support Palin personally rather than the election of conservative leaders whom the committee claims to support.
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