Fong's $100,000 Mystery Solved

Back in the warmth of July, then-Republican candidate for governor Christian Fong sent out a press release touting how his fledgling campaign had raised $100,000 in its opening three weeks.

Impressive, but who exactly gave him the money?

His people weren't saying:

"...we will file when required by law and at that time you'll be able to review the disclosure and see the numbers are accurate."

Well, that filing deadline has come.

Yeah, I know, Fong dropped his bid on December 1. But he' s our hometown guy and he's still mentioned as a possible running mate for Terry Branstad, so let's have a quick look.

My math says he actually raised $99,365 in contributions dated through July 20, but close enough. He raised $127,312 total.

A lot of the bucks Fong raised in those early weeks came from a handful of donors.

Bruce Altorfer of Cedar Rapids contributed $25,000, followed by Iowans for Tax Relief  chairman Dave Stanley's $10,000 donation.

Speaking of Iowans for Tax Relief, Ed and Maurene Failor of West Des Moines gave Fong $5,000, as did former Maytag CEO Len Hadley of Cedar Rapids, John Bloomhall of Marion and Stephen Gray of Cedar Rapids.  

So there's $55,000 right there.

Fong's parents, Nelson and Janeta Fong, pitched in $5,000 during those early weeks. His wife Janelle also contributed $5,000.

You can look at the contributions here.

Spending wise, Davenport-based political consulting firm Victory Enterprises was the biggest beneficiary of the short Fong foray into gubernatorial politics.

His campaign spent more than $60,000 on various Victory services including consulting, ads etc. That's nearly half of the $123,000 his campaign spent.

So now we know.