Bush Campaign Spent Millions on Ads, Hotels, Events

Jeb Bush's deep-pocketed presidential primary campaign reportedly burned through a majority of its abundant cash on ads, posh clubs, a public relations firm, travel and consultants.

Yet the lavish spending spree didn't win even one state by the time he suspended his campaign after Saturday's South Carolina primary, the New York Times notes, laying out the candidate's ledger in detail.

According to the Times, the Bush campaign spent:

• $84 million on positive ads to reacquaint Bush as a trusted conservative to voters eight years after his governorship in Florida;
• $94,100 in the first half of 2015 to woo rich donors at dinners and events at swanky venues including the Yale Club, the Union League Club of Chicago, Nantucket’s Westmore Club, and more than two dozen other rich-people destinations;
• $15,800 on parking valets for donors;
• $8.3 million on campaign staff and organizers;
• $88,387 on public relations firm 30 Point Strategies, which specializes in "thought leadership" and "brand journalism";
• $3.3 million in airfare and hundreds of thousands of dollars at hotels, ranging from a Best Western in Phoenix to the Biltmore in Coral Gables, Fla. — and including $48,544 at the Bellagio, Wynn and the Venetian on Las Vegas' Strip, owned by GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson;
• $10 million on consultants, and;
• $4,837 on pizza for campaign workers.

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