I saw a dumb article on Mediaite today about an item in Jon Ossoff’s most recent campaign finance report regarding $2,887 spent on “makeup services,” and thought to myself, I bet Ben Cline has items in his most recent campaign finance report that we can make fun of.
Campaign finance reports never fail to disappoint in terms of the payoff you get for poring through them.
Transfer of excess funds
There were two items listed under this entry – one for $62,000 on March 31, 2025, the second for $34,000 on June 27, 2025.
The recipient: the National Republican Congressional Committee.
This is money that Cline received in contributions from his donors, then decided would be better spent by somebody else.
And yet, he’s still sending out fundraising emails, begging for more.
Turns out, these are the top two expenditures on his latest filing, as was the case for his 2024 re-election campaign.
Why is he still sending out his pleas for more money?
Fundraising consulting
He doesn’t need the money he’s getting, and also, he spends a lot of the money he gets trying to figure out how to get more.
Under “fundraising consulting”:
Ryland Consulting
- $30,000 (March 5, 2026)
Total: $30,000
The Stanton Group LLC
- $13,849.29 (March 20, 2026)
- $13,789.77 (Feb. 1, 2026)
- $9,000.00 (March 24, 2025)
- $3,000 (Jan. 30, 2026)
- $3,000 (Jan. 5, 2026)
- $3,000 (Aug. 28, 2025)
- $3,000 (July 31, 2025)
- $3,000 (July 2, 2025)
- $3,000 (May 30, 2025)
- $3,000 (April 30, 2025)
- $3,000 (Feb. 27, 2025)
Total: $60,639.06
Laura Bell Consulting Inc.
- $10,191.50 (Oct. 28, 2025)
- $8,025.28 (Jan. 15, 2025)
- $7,669.32 (Feb. 12, 2026)
- $4,500 (Feb. 27, 2025)
- $3,670.06 (Oct. 28, 2025)
- $3,500 (Jan. 30, 2026)
- $3,500 (Jan. 5, 2026)
- $3,500 (Aug. 28, 2025)
- $3,500 (July 31, 2025)
- $3,500 (July 2, 2025)
- $3,500 (May 30, 2025)
- $3,500 (April 30, 2025)
- $3,500 (April 3, 2025)
- $3,500 (Feb. 27, 2025)
- $3,423.10 (Feb. 6, 2026)
- $2,620.05 (Oct. 28, 2025)
- $2,500.00 (Jan. 30, 2025)
Total: $74,099.31
Campaign Engine Group LLC
- $5,500 (March 10, 2026)
Total: $5,500
Digital consulting
This guy supposedly hates waste, right?
What are consultants, but political waste, monetized?
Strategic Partners and Media LLC
- $3,000 (Feb. 27, 2026)
- $2,698.42 (Feb. 9, 2026)
- $2,500.00 (Jan. 30, 2026)
- $2,500.00 (Jan. 5, 2026)
- $2,500.00 (Nov. 13, 2025)
- $2,500.00 (Oct. 3, 2025)
- $2,500.00 (Aug. 28, 2025)
- $2,500.00 (July 31, 2025)
- $2,500.00 (July 2, 2025)
- $2,500.00 (May 30, 2025)
- $2,500.00 (April 30, 2025)
- $2,500.00 (March 21, 2025)
- $2,500.00 (March 21, 2025)
- $2,500.00 (March 21, 2025)
- $500 (Feb. 17, 2026)
Total: $36,198.42
CD Acquisitions LLC
- $5,000 (Feb. 27, 2026)
- $5,000 (Jan. 30, 2026)
- $5,000 (Jan. 5, 2026)
Total: $15,000
Media consulting
Remember Tim Murtaugh, the former Richmond bureau chief for NBC29 in Charlottesville?
Murtaugh went on to become a campaign operative for a run of statewide Republican candidates, before becoming a go-to guy in TrumpWorld.
Ben Cline certainly knows who Tim Murtaugh is.
- $5,000.00 (Feb. 27, 2026)
- $5,000.00 (Jan. 30, 2026)
- $5,000.00 (Jan. 16, 2026)
- $5,000.00 (Dec. 15, 2025)
- $5,000.00 (Nov. 13, 2025)
- $5,000.00 (Oct. 16, 2025)
- $5,000.00 (Sept. 15, 2025)
- $5,000.00 (Aug. 14, 2025)
- $5,000.00 (July 15, 2025)
- $5,000.00 (June 13, 2025)
- $5,000.00 (May 15, 2025)
- $5,000.00 (April 15, 2025)
- $5,000.00 (March 13, 2025)
Total: $65,000
Compliance consulting
This industry takes money from campaigns to make sure campaigns are spending their money in line with federal law.
What a racket.
Political Compliance Services Inc.
- $1,900 (Jan. 30, 2026)
- $1,900 (Jan. 5, 2026)
- $1,900 (Nov. 30, 2025)
- $1,900 (Oct. 30, 2025)
- $1,900 (Oct. 3, 2025)
- $1,900 (Aug. 28, 2025)
- $1,900 (July 31, 2025)
- $1,900 (July 2, 2025)
- $1,900 (May 30, 2025)
- $1,900 (April 30, 2025)
- $1,900 (April 3, 2025)
- $1,900 (Feb. 27, 2025)
- $1,900 (Jan. 30, 2025)
- $1,000 (Feb. 27, 2026)
Total: $25,700
The damage
The Ben Cline re-election campaign reported $1,058,316.84 in spending through July 15, according to its report on file with the FEC.
Of that total:
- The campaign gave the NRCC $96,000 in what it considered “excess funds.”
- It spent $170,238.37 on “fundraising consulting.”
- It spent $51,198.42 on “digital consulting.”
- It paid a former TV reporter $65,000 for “media consulting.”
- And it paid $25,700 for “compliance consulting.”
The total bill: $408,136.79.
That’s 38.6 percent of what the campaign has spent so far – on “excess funds” and on consultants.
Mediaite made a big deal – the headline on the site’s front page for the story is literally: “Ossoff Reportedly Spent Big on ‘Makeup Services’ From Hollywood Artist” – about $2,887.
Ben Cline’s “excess funds” and spending on consultants is 141 times that big spending on makeup.
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Chris Graham
