Monday, July 27, 2009

Follow Up On The Mysterious Expense Refund

Last night, I pointed out that one of the myriad of oddities from Scott Walker's campaign financial report was an inexplicable expense refund from the Journal Broadcast Group, to the tune of $15,000.

I put out some questions to those wiser and more more familiar with this area than I, and well, got back a couple of different answers.

One answer I heard was that it was money that was paid for ads on WTMJ that never aired. But as I pointed out last night, the order would have had to have been placed and money paid more than a year ago. It seems to me an awfully long time to wait to settle up, but maybe that's how it works.

Another answer I received, which kind of goes along with the first one, is that WTMJ did an internal audit and found that they were overcharging the candidates for airing their commercials, dating at least back as far 2006. Mark Green and Jim Doyle are also supposed to have received the same refunds, as well as other candidates for other offices.

I was also informed that these type of refunds aren't usually attributed to JBG directly, as that a media firm is the one that is usually the go-between for the campaign and JBG. The media firm buys the time, runs the ads and cuts the checks. Any expense refunds would likewise be channeled through the media firm.

It was speculated by one of my sources that JBG chose to make the refund directly due to its size.

Take what you will out of it, but at least it is some sort of answer. It would be nice if they had a note section to avoid all of this bother.

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