Playing With Fire: Calvey Campaign Ignites One

There's not much that's more important to a political candidate than his credibility and campaigns that issue misleading fundraising reports quickly learn they are playing with fire.

Commentary By Mike McCarville

Today, 5th District congressional candidate Kevin Calvey has a bonfire raging in his fledgling campaign. Calvey's campaign ignited today's blaze on April 14th with a news release claiming Calvey had raised "over $125,000 in three and a half weeks."

And nine days later, we learn from Republican Calvey's official Federal Election Commission report that the hyper-inflated figure, obviously used to try to show financial strength in his campaign, is based almost totally on Calvey's loan of $100,100 to his campaign. The fact is he's raised just $27,000 from donors, his finance report shows.

Here's the text of Calvey's news release:

For Immediate Release Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Contact: Dustin Gabus, Calvey for Congress 2010 Communications Director OKLAHOMA CITY – The Calvey for Congress 2010 campaign today announced the results for the first fundraising quarter. Kevin Calvey, who is running for the Oklahoma 5th District Congressional seat being vacated by Mary Fallin, raised over $125,000 in three and half weeks. Calvey kicked off the campaign early last month. "We are pleased with the strong response from donors in spite of the current recession and the short time period. Oklahoma conservatives are responding positively to our message of fiscal responsibility and common sense values," Calvey said.

"$125,000 Fuels Calvey Congress Campaign," The McCarville Report Online reported based on Calvey's misleading claim. Turns out the Calvey campaign tank had far less fuel in it than the news release claimed.

Asked today about the claim, Calvey told TMRO, “I’m very pleased with our fundraising performance in the first three weeks of our campaign. I’m proud to have invested some of my own funds into the campaign, and I’m proud to have raised what we did in such a short period. I expect to continue and expand this fundraising pace, and with well more than a year until the primary, I’m very confident that we will have the funds necessary to win the race.”

Calvey's FEC report shows he spent $846.65 in the 1st Quarter and had $126,328 in cash on hand as of March 31st.

$100,100 of it from the candidate himself, of course.

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