Sean Tevis, a Democrat in State Rep District 15 in Olathe, has become somewhat of an Internet political celebrity with a story yesterday about his unusual Internet campaign in the Los Angeles Times of all places.
His campaign report filed yesterday with the Kansas Government Ethics Commission showed an amazing $96,512 raised, but almost all the money was raised on dates that correspond to the far-left’s 2008 Netroots Nation convention in Austin, July 17-20. Is it possible that Tevis’ campaign was little more than a Netroots Nation experiment? Did other candidates across the nation use this same trick to load their campaign coffers with cash as part of Netroots Nation?
A July 19 posting from the chrisblask blog suggests a netroots connection:
Sean Tevis is an Information Architect and fellow netroots geek who decided to run against Arlen Siegfreid, the current State Representative.
A huge part of Tevis’ contributions (71.9%) were small, unitemized, and without any additional information. Only 1.8% of all contributions were from known Kansas sources, and NONE were from Tevis’ district.
Here’s the the summary of the report filed by Tevis today:
Here is the summary of unitemized contributions:
A review of Tevis’ report showed $1725 in contributions from 12 Kansans, but 3 of these 12 could not be identified as registered voters. Tevis’ Kansas contributors were from State Rep Districts 3, 14, 17, 18, 20, 26, 27, 39, 42, 85, and 114. NOT ONE contributor was from State Rep District 15, which is the district Tevis hopes to represent.
The most notable Kansas contributor was Kansas Democratic Party activist, Lynn Shaw, who is the wife of Kansas/South Dakota Democratic Party activist/fundraiser, Dennis Langley.
Tevis received contributions from 253 contributors from outside Kansas.
Republican Siegfreid’s Aug 2008 campaign contribution report is not yet online and available for review. His Jan 2008 report showed $11,418 cash on hand, which normally would have been a respectable amount.
Blue Oregon on July 21 wondered if Tevis was really a Democrat however:
Blue Oregon is a prime example of this phenomena. Kari’s recent hyping of Sean Tevis provides a case-in-point: If one scrolls down through the comments responding to Sean’s position on immigration (his use of the term “illegal immigration” should raise an eyebrow)
http://seantevis.com/kansas/issue/illegal-immigration/
After reading your very lightweight and vague manifesto it’s clear that you’re no Democrat. You’re a confused liberal leaning Republican.
Your website design is very modern and appealing, I hope you pursue more realistic goals in the future!
Tevis apparently didn’t get the memo that “Illegal Immigration” is not a term used by Democrats! Perhaps a rookie mistake, which has been corrected on his site.
One can only wonder why his place of work, SPX Cooling Technologies, gave him a leave of absence to run for public office, since Tevis and fellow Democrats will likely raise taxes on business, and impose more regulation on them.
Tevis’ wife, Michelle Tevis, is the Community Editor of the left-leaning Kansas City Star.
Tevis’ political campaign can be found in many places on the Internet even now. Some examples:
I’m a dirty foreigner and I’m not allowed to meddle in American elections. Someone else donate $8.34 to this guy for me, OK?
Tevis has quite an Internet presence, including a blog he claims is the oldest continuously running weblog in Johnson County.
From his Campaign Weblog, Tevis brags about his liberal endorsements from:
- Educating All Children in Kanas (E-PAC)
- Kansas Families for Education PAC
- MAIN*PAC
- KNEA
Tevis seems to have a sense of humor in his “Sean Tevis, man of thousand faces” pictures:
Related:
- In Olathe, New breed of Internet candidate raises more than $95K, KC Star Prime Buzz, July 28, 2008.
- Sean Tevis Campaign Site Offers Stick Figure Theater, The Pitch, July 18, 2008.
Tags: Arlen Siegfreid, House, Internet fundraising, Olathe, Sean Tevis, State Rep
It’s hard to fault the guy for having little money from Kansas given the unforeseeable fundraising from his comic. He obviously created it on a lark – and had no way of knowing that it would strike a chord and draw as much interest as it did. He surely had no way of knowing it would bring in so many donations, and was only using it to supplement his traditional fund-raising. No one – not even Tevis himself – will ever be able to replicate this success. It was a fluke.
Having raised all that money, though, it would be hard to ask for even more money from his neighbors. Times are tough, and he has all the money he needs for the election.