Mia Love’s newly formed political action committee raised nearly $350,000 in the last three months. But the vast majority of that money can’t be used for a possible rematch with Ben McAdams in 2020.
The Friends of Mia Love PAC reported $328,654 in donations from the last three months, with another $21,000 transferred from her campaign committee.
The new PAC was formed earlier this year as a multi-candidate committee with the purpose of donating to federal candidates. That kind of committee has strict limits on how much it can donate to federal candidates, meaning Love can’t just pull hundreds of thousands of dollars over to her campaign should she decide to run again for Congress as she has hinted. If Love did decide to run again, the most money her PAC could give her campaign is $10,000.
The PAC’s website is chock-a-block filled with traditional Republican talking points, promising to support candidates who “believe in fiscal discipline, limited government and personal responsibility.” The PAC also aims to aid conservatives in efforts to connect with minority voters, which has been a consistent refrain from Love since she conceded defeat to Ben McAdams in November of last year.
So far, the PAC has donated just over $11,000 to 6 Republicans, including Texas Rep. Will Hurd who was one of four Republicans to vote in favor of a resolution condemning President Donald Trump’s tweets attacking four Democratic congresswomen of color as racist.
The PAC also paid large amounts to some of Love’s political associates. Ivan Dubois, her former chief of staff, received nearly $30,000 for fundraising consulting fees to her PAC. Laurel Price, a former top staffer of Love’s who was recently hired as the new executive director for the Utah Republican Party was paid $3,500 for social media consulting.
During Love’s time in Congress, she built a massive fundraising operation through direct mail marketing, and it appears that she is pursuing the same strategy here. Of the 213,000 of expenses reported in the PAC disclosure, nearly $147,000, or 70% of all spending, was for “direct marketing.”
Campaign finance experts UtahPolicy.com spoke with suggested Love may be keeping her extensive direct mail fundraising list, which she developed during her two terms in Congress, active through fundraising for the new PAC.
