I'm not into the whole conspiracy theory or anything, but that's a shitload of money for a political campaign.

8 k? Man, I should have ran against Maria.

Before taxes, if you break it down, that's 58% of Maria's monthly congressional salary. That's a lot of dough.

That's not much money at all...

Top flight political consultants regularly go for as much as $500 an hour, or more - there are consultants who will cost you thousands an hour - while even local mid-range ones can easily earn as much as $150/hour. At 40 hours a week - and you can bet your sweet ass Wilson will be working longer hours than that - $150 an hour is about $280,000 a year pro-rated, and that's with four weeks vacation.

$96k a year pro-rated? A steal.

Hush money.

Yeah, this is a non-story. Smart people demand to get paid what they think they're worth. If he can win an election, $25K is nothing.

Wow, $8K a month to try and convince people to vote for somebody... I'm in the wrong line of work.

Yeah, but with all due respect for his service to country, etc - Mark Wilson isn't a top flight political strategist - he's a nobody with little or no campaign experience.

Josh - Interesting, but why not cite your source? Point us to a document or Web page.

Meanwhile, if Wilson can be as good a campaigner for Cantwell as they hope, then that's 24K of $5 million they don't have to spend on campaigning against him.

"he's a nobody with little or no campaign experience."

That's why, Mr. X, he's only being paid $96k a year as a staffer and not a consultant. What does Mr. Wilson do? He rallies the left-wing elements who are damn angry about Cantwell's war vote.

So what's he getting paid for? Not for his input on a "big-win strategy." He's supposed to make it look like (whether it’s true or not) Cantwell is willing to listen to the anti-war contingent. She's not worried at all about loosing the primary, but she is worried about pacifist voters deserting her for a green come November. She'll need every last vote from the base against McGavick.

Daniel K.,
Sorry for leaving out the source. I interviewed Michael Meehan, a Cantwell campaign staffer. I was actually interviewing him about something else (the fact that Cantwell's latest TV spot was paid for in part by PAC money...which violates her pledge not to accept PAC money).

At the end of the interview, I asked: "How much is Mark Wilson getting paid?" He told me and then said to check my e-mail in-box because I'd find a press release on it. Which I did. So, it's no big scoop or secret. The $8K figure is public now.

Erostratus,

I agree with all of that, but he's still overpaid - even as a staffer.

How lame. Cantwell and her war department buy off the competition, and no one here sees a problem with that? Mark Wilson sold out, and his situation is another example of how the democrats can't be trusted. Not Wilson, not Cantwell. If people buy this load of crap she's selling, then they are all supporting the war machine. She votes for funding for the war---because one of her biggest donors is Boeing, who profits from the war. You vote for her, you are voting for killing people. Wake the fuck up.

Damn... is it too late to file against her? I could use another $24k.

First Wilson was a Libertarian, then a Green, than a Dem challenger, and now he's a Dem Party boy.

Is anyone surprised that he's taking this opportunity and the money that comes with it? I'm more surprised that the campaign saw good reason to co-opt a habitual loser and turncoat. What credibility does he lend Cantwell? His circuitious route to the middle of the road only lends him credibility as an opportunist.

He is, at least, an injection of local "talent" that the campaign has been accused of lacking. He'll certainly be able to help her find Garfield on a map, and maybe even forestall future gaffes that her out-of-state staffers cannot predict and sidestep.

Qualifying his $8k/month as high, "even for a staffer" assumes that staffers are well-paid to begin with. As a bottom-rung staffer on Cantwell's campaign, I only made $2.5k/month, which, spread over 60 hour+ work week, amounted to only $10 and change an hour. And while the Garfield fiasco was brewing, nothing was enough to field hundreds of calls a day from angry residents of the CD, pissed that tickets for their "community event" were sold out. Although, there was small satisfaction in being cussed out by a Bishop, and in honestly acknowledging to every one of them that the event was badly mismanaged.

Anyway, Feit, can you provide some perpsective here on what other outreach directors bring in?