The FEC provides free software for filing your campaign election reports. It is called fecfile. It runs only on Microsoft Windows, and everytime I use it, it requires an automatic update. I have a computer running Microsoft Windows, which if you know me at all, is an inconvenience, but I welcome the opportunity to report my campaign spending. Why? Because it is one of the few places in this race where all candidates seem to be treated equally. You can go to the Government website and see the numbers. Of course, this isn’t really true either, as the money from super PACs aren’t reported (or are reported differently). And there are no debates. And no media attention. Check with your Certified Public Accountant (CPA) for details.
But it is nice to know that Candidate A has raised 4 million dollars. I haven’t raised any money so reporting that is quite easy. I do report my in-kind donations however, which is somewhat interesting. I have to drive my car to get to a safe place where I can petition. I am using the private owned vehicle (POV) U.S. government rate of 56 cents a mile. This is actually my mistake because the new rate is 61 cents a mile which has gone up significantly due to gasoline being 5 dollars a gallon. I also pay for on-street parking. It adds up.
I am keeping these numbers in an open source spreadsheet based on orgmode. Here is the last quarter.
| Date | Description | mileage | parking | Cum | Num | | | | 0.00 | | 0. | 0 | |-----------+--------------+---------+---------+--------+-----| | 4/1 4.00 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 28.08 | 1 | | 4/7 free | gateway arch | 21.5 | 0 | 52.16 | 2 | | 4/12 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 80.24 | 3 | | 4/14 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 108.32 | 4 | | 4/15 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 136.4 | 5 | | 4/21 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 164.48 | 6 | | 4/22 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 192.56 | 7 | | 4/26 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 220.64 | 8 | | 4/27 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 248.72 | 9 | | 5/4 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 276.8 | 10 | | 5/9 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 304.88 | 11 | | 5/10 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 332.96 | 12 | | 5/11 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 361.04 | 13 | | 5/12 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 389.12 | 14 | | 5/13 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 417.2 | 15 | | 5/16 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 445.28 | 16 | | 5/17 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 473.36 | 17 | | 5/19 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 501.44 | 18 | | 5/20 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 529.52 | 19 | | 5/23 free | gateway arch | 21.5 | 0 | 553.6 | 20 | | 5/24 free | gateway arch | 21.5 | 0 | 577.68 | 21 | | 5/30 free | gateway arch | 21.5 | 0 | 601.76 | 22 | | 5/31 free | gateway arch | 21.5 | 0 | 625.84 | 23 | | 6/2 free | gateway arch | 21.5 | 0 | 649.92 | 24 | | 6/3 free | gateway arch | 21.5 | 0 | 674. | 25 | | 6/7 free | gateway arch | 21.5 | 0 | 698.08 | 26 | | 6/9 free | gateway arch | 21.5 | 0 | 722.16 | 27 | | 6/13 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 750.24 | 28 | | 6/14 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 778.32 | 29 | | 6/15 free | gateway arch | 21.5 | 0 | 802.4 | 30 | | 6/16 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 830.48 | 31 | | 6/17 free | gateway arch | 21.5 | 0 | 854.56 | 32 | | 6/20 free | gateway arch | 21.5 | 0 | 878.64 | 33 | | 6/21 free | gateway arch | 21.5 | 0 | 902.72 | 34 | | 6/22 | gateway arch | 21.5 | 4 | 930.8 | 35 | | 6/23 free | gateway arch | 21.5 | 0 | 954.88 | 36 | #+TBLFM: $5=@+0$3*0.56*2+@+0$4+@-1$5::$6=@-1$6 + 1
