The Cheat Sheet

Election 2012: Follow the money

Nine firms that are run by or that re­cently em­ployed top Rom­ney aides have re­ceived al­most a third of the $435.8 mil­lion that Rom­ney’s cam­paign and a re­lated fun­drais­ing com­mit­tee have spent on op­er­at­ing ex­penses through Oct. 17, ac­cord­ing to a Los Angeles Times ana­lys­is of fed­er­al elec­tion fin­ance re­ports.

The Obama cam­paign has re­lied more heav­ily on out­side vendors, dir­ect­ing $5.8 mil­lion to firms with busi­ness ties to top strategists.

Note: Pay­ments do not in­clude money for tele­vi­sion and ra­dio air­time.

Read more: Rom­ney spends big on firms tied to aides

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Mitt Romney | $134 million paid to firms with ties to the Romney campaign's inner circle

Zac Moffatt

Digital strategist


$64,115,235 to Targeted Victory for digital consulting and web development. The company was co-founded by Moffatt, who serves as the digital strategist for Romney's campaign.

Stevens, Schriefer, Fehrnstrom

Media strategists


$23,644,470 to American Rambler for media production, polling, communications and strategy consulting. The firm is run by Stuart Stevens, Russ Schriefer and Eric Fehrnstrom who are media strategists for Romney's campaign.

Spencer Zwick

Campaign finance chair


$12,500,000 to VG and $9,663,723 to SJZ, for fundraising consulting. Both firms are run by Zwick, who serves as Romney's campaign finance chair.

Rich Beeson

Political director


$16,550,394 to FLS Connect for telemarketing and data management. Rich Beeson, Romney's political director, is a former partner.

Ward Baker

Senior advisor


$4,120,508 to Majority Strategies for printing and design of direct mail. Baker, a senior Romney advisor, is on leave from the firm.

Bradley Crate

Chief financial officer


$1,492,644 to Easterly Capital, which is registered to Crate, for air charter and $1,398,000 to Red Curve Solutions for compliance consulting. Crate, who serves as Romney's chief financial officer, is Red Curve Solutions' chief executive.

Katie Packer Gage

Deputy campaign manager


$747,817 to WWP Strategies for strategy consulting. Gage, a deputy campaign manager for Romney, is one of the firm's three partners.

Barack Obama | $5.8 million paid to firms with ties to the Obama campaign's inner circle

Joe Rospars

Chief digital strategist


$2,396,922 to Blue State Digital for technology consulting and web hosting. Rospars, a chief digital strategist for Obama, is founding partner.

Jim Margolis

Media strategist


$2,083,709 to GMMB for media consulting, production. Margolis, an Obama media strategist, is a partner.

Larry Grisolano

Media strategist


$1,174,906 to AKPD Message and Media for media consulting and production. Obama media strategist Larry Grisolano is a partner.

David Axelrod

Senior strategist


$166,000 to Axelrod's firm, Axelrod Strategies, for strategy. Axelrod is a senior strategist for Obama.

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