Politics on the Hudson

Christian Winthrop, a former Senate campaign aide to John Spencer, “acknowledged recently”:http://polhudson.lohudblogs.com/2007/02/06/in-todays-paper-spencers-debts-and-more/ that the campaign still owed him money for his work.

But Winthrop, who previously worked for a conservative Congressional candidate in Rhode Island in the 2002 and 2004 cycles, apparently “found a way”:http://www.projo.com/news/content/special_operations_pac_03-11-07_PO4OGKI.3322529.html to keep the Rhode Island relationship profitable, an old colleague of mine at The Providence Journal reports.

Winthrop and that candidate, David Rogers, formed a PAC that raised $415,000 in the 2005-2006 election cycle but distributed just $9,000 to federal candidates, the people the PAC was supposed to be helping, the article says. Most of the rest was paid out in operating expenses and consulting fees.

The article continues: Winthrop, listed in documents as the fund’s treasurer, collected more than $113,000 from the PAC — named the Special Operations Fund. Winthrop had been working in the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. John McCain, as deputy campaign manager of New Hampshire operations. His job with McCain ended Tuesday — the day The Journal contacted the campaign about the PAC, according to a McCain campaign official.