Bosworth's bonanza — but full picture still obscured

Annette Bosworth raised a lot of money in the first quarter of 2014.

How much money? Try $772,326.66.

That's eye-popping. It's more money than frontrunner Mike Rounds raised in the first quarter, and his $730,000 haul was Rounds' personal best.

But what we don't know is how much of that $772,000 will actually help Bosworth win South Dakota voters.

That's because Bosworth has used a controversial form of direct mail fundraising in which donors around the country are hit up for money, but the direct mail company pockets 75 percent or more of the proceeds. The result is candidates raise tons of money — but most of it goes back out the door and isn't available to spend on TV ads, postcards, travel, and other important areas.

And Bosworth's campaign manager Patrick Davis said his campaign didn't have information Wednesday evening about how much debt Bosworth owes.

That's significant because at the end of 2013 Bosworth owed $255,000 — more than the $249,000 she had in the bank.

Bosworth's fundraising haul looks a lot different depending on if she has $0 debt, $250,000 in debt, double that or more.

Here's what we do know: Bosworth took in $772,000, and spent all but $100,000 of that, a very high "burn rate." Part of that went for television ads. Part of it surely went to her fundraising firm Base Connect. We'll know how much when the full report becomes available.

Bosworth's cash-on-hand increased from $249,000 to $348,431.41. If she has no debt, that means she's got about one-third the war chest of Mike Rounds. The more debt she has, the more obligations she has against that pile of cash other than campaign purposes.

Even with all those potential drawbacks, though, after two six-figure quarters, Bosworth is clearly in another fundraising tier from Larry Rhoden and Stace Nelson. A lot can change in a few months, but from fundraising ability she looks like the most serious challenger to Rounds' nomination.

Here's an old Salon article about Base Connect that I quoted earlier this year:

Formerly known as BMW Direct, Base Connect describes itself "a full-service creative agency for conservative candidates running at the national level." For the past several election cycles, the firm's M.O. has gone like this: find a longshot conservative candidate running against a well-established Democratic incumbent, then launch a national fundraising campaign by sending direct mail to a list of true-believing but small-time conservative donors around the country.

The catch is that as much 75 or 80 or even 95 percent of the money raised is paid back to Base Connect and its "partner" companies (which are based in the same suite in the same building just off K Street in Washington). GOP consultant Bill Pascoe dubbed this "subprime fundraising." And Erick Erickson once said that candidates who use the firm are in danger of losing RedState's endorsement, presumably because conservative donors' money is going to a fundraising agency rather than actually helping the cause. Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA) dropped all ties with Base Connect after Talking Points Memo reported in March he was paying the firm 75 percent in fundraising fees.