Herman Cain super PAC on ‘list support’

Introduction

Cain Connections PAC, a super PAC led by former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain and administered by his cigarette-smoking right hand man Mark Block, finds itself struggling to stay solvent. And relevant.

For one, the super PAC took in just $640 in contributions between Nov. 27 and Dec. 31, new federal filings show.

That’s a pittance compared to the more than $1.24 million it collected from people and political committees during the rest of 2012.

Most of the money Cain Connections PAC generated in late 2012 — $19,294 — came from renting lists of information on its supporters to a pair of Virginia-based political fundraising firms, its latest federal disclosure indicates.

Meanwhile, the super PAC’s minimal expenditures aren’t going toward political advocacy at all but to bankroll its own internal operations.

Legal services and credit card and bank fees rank among its late-year spending, which stands in stark contrast to the tens of thousands of dollars it invested earlier in 2012 on attacking President Barack Obama through various advertisements.

Cain Connections PAC ended the year with about $37,000 in reserve against more than $13,500 in debt, records show. That means it’s just back in the black after spending chunks of 2012 carrying more debt on its balance sheet than available cash.

Following his failed presidential bid, Cain stitched together a network of political and business entities, led in part by the Cain Connections PAC. But the super PAC of late has been all but a nonentity on the political scene.

Cain on Friday told the Daily Caller he’s not interested in running for Georgia’s open U.S. Senate seat in 2014 because he wants to focus on a radio program he hosts.

Why is 2013 an important year for campaign finance? Dave Levinthal and Michael Beckel will answer that, and many other questions about the money-in-politics world in a live chat next Monday, February 4, at 1:00pm ET.