Sarah Palin's PAC funds consultants but few candidates

Fredreka Schouten, @fschouten | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Sarah Palin's leadership PAC spent nearly $500,000 during the first six months of the year, and made just one donation to a political candidate, new campaign filings show.

Much of Sarah PAC's money went to operating expenses, including more than $217,000 paid to consultants and more than $124,000 on postage and mailings. More than $48,000 covered airfare and other travel expenses.

Palin, the GOP's 2008 vice presidential nominee and former Alaska governor, recently said she has "considered" mounting a Senate challenge next year to Alaska's Democratic Sen. Mark Begich, one of his party's most vulnerable incumbents.

Her PAC raised more than $460,000 this year and ended June with a hefty $1.1 million in the bank.

The political action committee made a single campaign contribution during the first six months of the 2013 — a slow period in the political calendar. It donated $5,000 to Republican Jason Smith, who won a special election in Missouri to fill former representative Jo Ann Emerson's House seat.

"The PAC has the resources ready to contribute to whomever the governor decides to support and endorse during the 2014 election cycle," its treasurer Tim Crawford said in an e-mail Wednesday.

Leadership political action committees, once the province of top congressional leaders, first emerged as a vehicle for established politicians to share campaign money with others in their party. They also have become de facto political operations, allowing current and former elected officials to hire key staff and underwrite expenses that help advance their future political careers.

Other Palin PAC expenses included more than $37,000 for speech-writing costs. The PAC also picked up the bill for SUV rentals from limousine companies in Alaska and Washington, D.C.

Contributing: Christopher Schnaars