In its final campaign finance report for the year, conservative super PAC Vermonters First reported spending more than $14,600 in legal fees, almost a month after Election Day.
Vermonters First founder Tayt Brooks didn’t return repeated requests for comment. The $14,664 was spent on Chicago law firm Foley & Lardner on Nov. 30, according to the regulatory report.
According to Foley & Lardner’s company website, they maintain a political law practice, with attorneys representing exclusively Republican candidates and political party committees. They also advise on the creation, governance and operations of PACs.
The Attorney General’s Office launched a tentative review of Vermonters First in late October, after complaints from the Vermont Democratic Party about inaccurate mass mailings and questions over potential illegal co-ordination with political candidates.
Deputy Attorney General Susanne Young said that review was closed in mid-November because those who submitted the complaints didn’t provide “sufficient basis to proceed with a full investigation.”
Legal fees shouldered by at least one political candidate this election season went toward compliance with campaign finance and election law, which can be a tricky and technical legal arena. Foley & Lardner didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Vermonters First spent almost $1 million this campaign season, seeking to promote Republican candidates and causes, to little success. The vast majority of its donations came from reclusive Burlington donor Lenore Broughton.
The state’s most influential super PAC also spent $425 in late November, paying Gerhard Mayer from Colchester for “research.”
In other items from the last campaign finance report, former gubernatorial candidate Randy Brock spent about $58,000 more than he’d raised, leaving his campaign with a sizable deficit. Brock said he could deal with the gap using additional funding anticipated to arrive on Jan. 1, but wouldn’t divulge more details.
He said he’d likely write off his $300,000 personal loan to his campaign as self-financing, rather than try to raise $300,000 more from donors to pay himself back.
The only other statewide candidate left with a deficit was Vince Illuzzi, who ran for auditor, and is now left with a gap of almost $20,000. Illuzzi is still considering a Statehouse lobbying job with the Vermont State Employees Association, though he retains his part-time position as Essex-Orleans state’s attorney.
Although Brock said at the end of his campaign that he’d seek to stay in Vermont policy circles, he isn’t yet ready to go public about his next career move.
Gov. Peter Shumlin has about $918,000 left in his campaign coffers, which campaign manager Alex MacLean told VTDigger last month would be reserved for Shumlin’s 2014 gubernatorial campaign.
