McCain Campaign Spent $110,000 on Palin’s Stylists

By Michael Luo
Sarah PalinGov. Sarah Palin campaigning in York, Pa., on Oct. 31. (Photo: Todd Heisler/The New York Times)

Update | 9:37 a.m. G.O.P. Paid Almost $55,000 for Palin Fashion Stylist

Gov. Sarah Palin’s traveling makeup artist was paid $68,400 and her hair stylist received more than $42,000 for roughly two months of work, according to a new campaign finance report filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Ms. Palin’s makeup artist, Amy Strozzi — who was nominated for an Emmy award for her cosmetics work on the television show “So You Think You Can Dance?” — was paid $32,400 by Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign between Oct. 16 and Nov. 24, the period covered by the most recent reports filed with the commission.

This amount came on top of the $36,000 she had already been paid in previous reports, dating back to September.

In addition, Ms. Palin’s traveling hair stylist, Angela Lew, was paid a total of $42,225, with $23,400 coming during the period covered by the latest reports to the commission, which were due at midnight on Thursday.

Much attention has been paid to the $150,000 the Republican National Committee spent on outfitting Ms. Palin in September at high-end department stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, as well as on makeup services.

Republican officials said this week that additional clothing charges would appear on the Republican National Committee’s campaign finance report totaling less than $30,000. But the committee’s report, which was due at midnight on Thursday, was not yet available as of late evening.

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g english December 5, 2008 · 12:03 am

Hmmmm… According to the right wing trolls, Obama, who wears resoled shoes with holes in them and patched pants, was an elitist for eating lettuce and drinking orange juice, but Sarah Palin was a woman of the people when she spent a couple hundred thousand dollars on clothes and makeup over the course of two months.

Just a wee bit hypocritical perhaps? You betchya.

MW December 5, 2008 · 12:03 am

We are in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. However, the “don’t get it” Republicans spend money like crazy on the worst Vice-Presidential candidate in the history of this once-great nation! And, they still wonder how they lost on November 4th!

mesmerati December 5, 2008 · 12:10 am

Just think, Michael Luo. Out there in the real world, there’s something called a newspaper. (And yes, it’s quite different from what we read here in “Obama Online.”) And yet you’re here, writing these nonnews stories. Yes, we all have to eat, but you really need to make a character judgment…and maybe find some real work, i.e., a real story to chase.

Now as for the others of you set to weigh in with your usual measure of vituperative posts, remember the balance beam scale. Here’s your reminder…even though it’s been said before.

On the one hand we have Sarah Palin: mayor, governor, candidate for vice president of the United States, perhaps a senator, maybe one day candidate for president of the United States.

And on this blog page we have the “usual suspects,” the ranters and the ravers who can’t wait to line up for another whack at Palin.

The question still remains: Who’s made the greater contribution to the body politic, all of you put together or Sarah Palin standing alone?

The answer still remains: Sarah Palin hands down.

And that, boys and girls, is the bottom line.

DVS December 5, 2008 · 12:20 am

Wow, at least someone’s got a decent job.

holmes December 5, 2008 · 12:27 am

OH BOY!!! that’s sure a lot of money & make-up to ‘shake up the base’!

irony of ironies– said ‘base’ had to ‘pay’ for it– to be shaken up!

too funny!

Thank you Sarah, for saving us from McCain. December 5, 2008 · 12:30 am

The McCain team regarded Moose Palin as nothing more than a Barbie doll to style, paint, and put clothing on. They failed at getting a working speech mechanism installed in her.

She was a pageant contestant lacking any actual substance.

And they fooled a huge number of Americans.

Mike Chilton December 5, 2008 · 12:43 am

It is interesting to note that more compensation is given on an annualized basis to an ill-suited (and I’m not referring to clothes) vice presidential nominees appearance than that of the Secretary of State……. Mike

Miande December 5, 2008 · 1:08 am

Didn’t get good value for all that money, did they?

Rory December 5, 2008 · 1:46 am

I wasn’t a McCain supporter, but I never understood why any of this mattered. I think that this was mostly a bunch of pretend outrage. I don’t really care how much they spent on her clothing and stylist.

sue December 5, 2008 · 1:50 am

That is throwing away money like I have never heard before. This is fiscally responsible? If this is what the republicans spent campaign contributions on the IRS really needs to look into it. No one is worth that much to slap on face paint and spray on lacquer.

Dana December 5, 2008 · 3:13 am

These expenditure reflect an awful combination of desperation, superficiality and exceptionally poor judgment.

Anon December 5, 2008 · 4:10 am

Hey, lookin’ like a regular Joe Six Pack ain’t cheap ya know.

Duckley December 5, 2008 · 4:32 am

$110,000 on Palin, as she was plotting 2012 back at the end of September.

For Sarah, it was never about McCain-Palin, it was always about herself, her ambition, her hatred of the non-believers.

Go, Sarah ! You are best placed to drag the Republi-scums ever farther into the wilderness of irrelevance!

George December 5, 2008 · 5:05 am

I can buy several cars with that money.

KWinters December 5, 2008 · 5:32 am

Sort of puts the hubbub about Edwards’ $400 haircut into perspective, doesn’t it? Republicans in glass houses……

charles laffiteau December 5, 2008 · 5:57 am

Hmmm, That’s almost $300,000 on clothes, hair and makeup in just over 2 months time. If Mrs. Palin is such a darling of Republican social conservatives then i guess they there isn’t much hope that such Republicans will show much fiscal restraint should they ever succeed in getting their preferred candidte elected. Plus, if the only difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull is (the cost of?) lipstick, then I’m wondering just how much Mrs. Palin thinks it costs to take care of a pitbull. $150,000 a month seems like a pretty high bar to owning a pitbull if you ask me so maybe there are some other differences between a hockey mom and a pitbull that Mrs. Palin forgot to mention.

Kevin Clarke December 5, 2008 · 6:22 am

Who knew it cost so much to put lipstick on a pitbull ? Perhaps some of that money could be used to purchase an English version of ‘Rosetta Stone’ language immersion course for Governor Palin.

Alex Vallas December 5, 2008 · 6:52 am

What an extraordinarily waster of money. She was going to send all the clothes paid for by the Republican Party to charity. How does she return the hairdo’s and makeup that have long vanished? Did the party also pay for Todd’s haircuts and beard trims in addition to the clothes they bought him? What happend the the very expensive purse bought for her daughter? Wish this woman would just disappear. She certainly cannot quallfy for “mother of the year.” since she appears to have totally abandoned her young child. Fraud from head to toe.
Alex Vallas

Arun Mehta December 5, 2008 · 7:07 am

This is a classic case of The”Pygmalion effect” put in practice as in the GB Shaw play “Pygmalion”, in which a professor(Sen McCain) makes a bet that he can teach a poor flower girl(Wasilla hockey Mom) to speak and act like an upper-class lady, and is successful.

To some extent it was partially successful here as it reenergised the GOP base for the campaign.

JPT December 5, 2008 · 7:26 am

The Republicans went nuts over the fact that John Edwards had paid $400. for a haircut, yet I guess its fine to spend between $150,000 to $200,000 (final total yet to be known!) on clothing for Sarah Palin. And her makeup and hair costs are around $110,000! How much more hypocritical can you get than that. Edwards could get 775 $400 dollar haircuts for that, or 7,750 $40 dollar ones. I’m really tired of the right wing and their double standards.

disappointed hockey mom December 5, 2008 · 7:40 am

When will this leach disappear from the media scrutiny. Odd how they could not vet her and now we have to read that it took $42K to keep her beautiful for 2 months…We don’t need her plastic looks to run this Country. Get in the movies so all your acting and supposed caring can do something like entertain the people….Pls STAY in ALASKA!!!!

BillD December 5, 2008 · 7:42 am

I think this is news because there is no way around the fact that it just looks terrible. The appearance is awful.

John McCain was an outspoken champion of campaign finance reform. His proposal for multiple “town hall” appearances with Obama showed a sincere interest in campaigning on ideas and substance rather than image. Then his own campaign turns around and spends hundreds of thousands of the campaign’s public money (not the candidate’s personal money) on his VP candidate’s (and her relatives’) personal appearance. It’s just so tone deaf, it’s bound to turn off voters, and must have something to do with McCain’s having lost the election.

That’s why this is news.

Henry Doss December 5, 2008 · 7:47 am

To: mesmerati

Ouch. I seldom encounter such insightful and hard-hitting repartee as your post here on these pages. In particular the sound logic you use to “make the case for Sarah Palin” should leave all these vituperative — what a great word you had a chance to throw out! — know it alls in their place. To wit:

” On the one hand we have Sarah Palin: mayor, governor, candidate for vice president of the United States, perhaps a senator, maybe one day candidate for president of the United States.

Clearly you and other still-loyal Palin supporters have done your homework and are armed with unassailable logic and information to leave Palin detractors in the dust. I’m floored by the clarity and power of the argument that Sarah Palin is a “perhaps Senator” and a “maybe one day candidate for President.” Who wouldn’t be persuaded by this evidentiary argument.

After all, the rest of the vituperative folks who post here are probably mere tax payers, and parents and even — God forbid — community activists. None of them — and sad to say, that includes me — have ever had the pressure of being mayor of an Alaskan town, nor adjudicating how much of oil profit windfalls to send out in rebates to the Alaskan citizenry. We will never know the real pressures of this world as Sarah Palin knows them.

So Sarah Palin is coiffed and made up with hundreds of thousands of dollars. She’s earned it, by virtue of being “someday a Senator.” (Wouldn’t that make a great musical title? I can hear it now: “Someday a Senator, maybe a President.” A real Broadway hit!)

As long as we have the ringing clarity of folks like mesmerati defending the honor and substance of Sarah Palin, we can certainly count on the good electoral outcomes in the future.

Joe M December 5, 2008 · 7:52 am

mesmarati, you forgot “job” after whack! Palin’s an adult and should have said “no”. The best thing that happens to the country is if she fades into history, but if the GOP is dumb enough to nominated her in 2012, look for Obama’s electoral vote count to go over 400. Yup, yup!

Donald Dal Maso December 5, 2008 · 7:53 am

Sure, Sarah Palin has done a lot–for herself. With the help of a good PR rep she wowed the likes of William Kristol who helped her get the attention of the general public. It was perfect relationship of mutual using. The conservatives (con artists for short) need someone to catch the limelight and mouth their defunct ideas, and Palin needs more rungs on the ladder to climb.

I welcome the continual attention being given to this person because 1) She is the voice of modern Surrealism, 2) She inadvertently shows Americans how venal, shallow and mean we can be through our leaders and 3) She will raise a lot of money and win a lot of elections for progressive Democrats.

In terms of real accomplishment the humblest teacher’s aide in East Harlem is doing more for America than Sarah Palin will ever do, because Palin is for Palin. But what a great mirror for us, our narcissism, our need to idealize some phoney who prates on about how great we are and proves it by such great hair styling!