The involvement of immediate family members in a drunken brawl does little to boost one’s political prospects.

On a different level, the same might be said of a stingy leadership PAC.

Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s SarahPAC continued to perform underwhelmingly as a source of funds for other candidates in 2014’s third quarter, a report filed with the FEC this week showed. Out of $1.4 million the PAC had available in the third quarter — $978,000 sitting in the bank at the beginning of the July 1-Sept. 30 period, plus another more than $433,000 raised during that time — SarahPAC managed to donate just $45,000 to fellow Republicans running in the midterms. That’s a little more than 3 percent.

For the two-year 2014 cycle, the former Alaska governor’s PAC, a vehicle that helps her stay in the game amid talk that she may run in the 2016 presidential contest, has raised $2.5 million on top of more than $1.1 million that was in the bank at the start of the cycle. It has spent $2.7 million, with about $150,000 — or 5.5 percent — going to candidates.

That’s right about on par with the PAC’s parsimoniousness in 2012. Of the 417 leadership PACs that made at least one contribution in that cycle, SarahPAC was one of only 19 to give less than 10 percent of its total expenditures to candidates, other PACs or party committees. And it was one of only three of those spending more than $1 million to do so — the others being Rep. Ron Paul‘s (R-Texas) Liberty PAC and Sen. Marco Rubio‘s (R-Fla.) Reclaim America PAC. Paul was a presidential candidate, and Rubio may be one in 2016.

What did SarahPAC spend most of its money on, then, in the third quarter? Many of the same consultants she has used all along — for speechwriting, fundraising, logistics and research. There’s even someone paid to consult on “coalitions.” Travel, presumably for Palin, is part of the equation; a PAC like this is useful for keeping a high profile nationally without having to pay those pesky airline and hotel tabs out of personal funds. And the PAC sent $10,885 to HarperCollins — publisher of all three of Palin’s books — for “books for donor fulfillment.” That wasn’t the only book purchase by the committee: A lump sum of $13,000 was listed as being spent for “lodging, SUV rental, books for donors.”

There’s nothing illegal about the group’s lack of focus on giving to candidates. Few rules exist when it comes to what leadership PACs — most often set up by members of Congress to build loyalty and party cred by helping needy colleagues — can spend money on.

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So who were the lucky few to benefit from SarahPAC donations in July, August and September? Zach Dasher, a House candidate in Louisiana; Bob Johnson, a Georgia House hopeful who was beaten in a GOP primary runoff; Barry Loudermilk, also from Georgia, who has no Democratic opponent in his House race; Tom Emmer, who is attempting to win retiring Rep. Michele Bachmann‘s seat in Minnesota; Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona; Clint Didier, a former pro football player running for a House seat in Washington state; Joe Carr, a tea party-backed candidate who unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Sen. Lamar Alexander in Tennessee’s Republican primary; Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, whose re-election bid has been made far shakier by the popularity of opponent Greg Orman, an Independent; and Joe Miller, the tea party favorite to oppose Sen. Mark Begich (D) in Palin’s home state of Alaska. Miller lost to Dan Sullivan in the GOP primary, but Palin has not seen fit to donate to the Republican nominee, who is locked in nearly a dead heat with Begich.

Each of the nine received $5,000 from SarahPAC.

But the PAC’s meager record on supporting other candidates may simply be a reflection of Palin’s own penchant for keeping her checkbook closed when it comes to political appeals. The former governor has made only two contributions at the federal level, both of them a decade ago and adding up to a grand total of $628.



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