CONGRESS Former U.S. Rep. Tom Sawyer leaves job with $23,786 debt

A fund-raiser next month should wipe out the congressman's campaign debt.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- Outgoing U.S. Rep. Thomas C. Sawyer left Capitol Hill with his congressional campaign fund $23,786 in debt.
About one-third of the money is owed to a Cleveland company that served as his political consultant.
Sawyer, an Akron Democrat who served in the U.S. House for eight terms, lost his party's May primary for the 17th Congressional District seat to U.S. Rep.-elect Tim Ryan, a state senator from Niles. Ryan also won the Nov. 5 general election.
A Dec. 8 fund-raiser sponsored by the Summit County Democratic Party should erase the rest of Sawyer's debt, said Dan Lucas, his chief of staff.
Failed primary
The failed primary campaign cost Sawyer $472,004, about what Ryan probably spent for the primary and general election combined -- he had spent $441,075 as of Oct. 16.
Post-general-election financial reports for Ryan, Sawyer and other congressional candidates are supposed to be filed by next week with the Federal Election Commission.
In a report filed with the FEC by Sawyer after the primary election, his campaign showed a debt of $35,553. The latest report filed with the FEC by Sawyer, submitted about a month late, shows that the outgoing congressman trimmed that debt to $23,786 as of Sept. 30.
Raised money
Between July 1 and Sept. 30, Sawyer raised $16,258, with $6,000 of it coming from fellow Democratic members of Congress, including U.S. Reps. Barney Frank and Loretta Sanchez, two critics of former U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. Also, U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Cleveland and former U.S. Rep. Tony Hall of Dayton contributed to his campaign.
He used most of the money he raised to pay off his primary campaign debts.
But Sawyer still owes $8,412 to Burges and Burges Strategists of Cleveland, his campaign consultants, for the company's services and out-of-pocket expenses. More than $125,000 of the money Sawyer's campaign raised went to the company, primarily for media buys.
Sawyer also owes $8,050 to Contemporary Design Group of Cleveland for design, printing and mailing of campaign materials.
Future
Sawyer, who is also a former Akron mayor and state legislator, is undecided about his future, Lucas said.
"I don't know what he's going to do," Lucas said. "He's talking to some people in academia in different places. Tom, as always, is deliberative. I wish him well. It will work out. It always does for these guys."
skolnick@vindy.com