By Tim Eberly
The Republican Central Committee spent well over $2,000 backing Republican mayoral candidate Bob Rice, according to a campaign finance report filed Thursday with the Hill County Clerk and Recorder's Office.
In comparison, the Democratic Central Committee did not independently spend any money for the Democratic candidate, Mike Shortell.
All told, Rice and his political party have spent slightly more money for his mayoral campaign effort than Shortell spent on his campaign.
Spending so much money on advertising for Rice was "the decision we made as the central committee ... and the idea was to spend what we felt was necessary to get our message across," said Terry Schend, treasurer of the Hill County Republican Central Committee.
The extra money from the Republican Party gave a big boost to Rice's campaign. Between June 5 and Oct. 23, Rice had spent only $984.35 of his campaign account. He received $2,230 in donations.
Shortell spent $2,860.55 from April 20 to Oct. 20. His donations amounted to $2,315, excluding a $1,500 loan from the candidate himself.
Several discrepencies exist between the Republican Central Committee's finance report, information received from committee treasurer Terry Schend and advertisement contracts from a local radio station.
On Thursday, Schend said in an interview that the committee spent $2,216 on Rice's campaign, including $1,000 for radio advertisements and another $934 for newspaper ads, Schend said. Payments for fliers and door hangers, Schend said, accounted for the rest of the party's expenditures on behalf of Rice.
The Republican Central Committee's finance report said advertisements for Rice in the Daily News cost $734.53 $200 less than Schend's figure. Also, five separate advertising contracts with the local radio station four of which were purchased on Oct. 26 total $1,537.50, approximately $500 more than the amount Schend wrote on the official document.
The Daily News advertising department would not disclose how much the Republican Central Committee has been billed for newspaper advertising.
Schend could not be reached today to discuss the discrepancies.
Rice declined comment for this story.
