Seeing purple, not so much green

icPurple, the super PAC run by La Jolla computer magnate Ted Waitt that lost its bid to elect so-called independent Nathan Fletcher mayor last year, is still in business, barely. According to its monthly federal disclosure filing for January, the PAC — which spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ineffectual TV commercials featuring children mixing red and blue paint — posted net receipts of $87.01 and expenditures of $662.56, leaving it with a cash balance of $392.65. The committee’s biggest payment, $395.20, was made to the Empire Hotel in New York on January 17 for Sarah Duchnak to attend an event called “Common Sense Coalition and No Lables [sic] — the Meeting to Make America Work.” According to the group’s website, “The first objective of the Coalition is to serve as a location for independent voters to self-identify…. By getting pledge takers and Facebook ‘likes’, we are building a critical mass of voters who care about America’s future and are concerned about its current direction. Using the internet and social media, we will communicate with and organize this Army of Moderates.”

According to her profile on LinkedIn, Duchnak has been a research analyst for icPurple, where she has “Operated social media campaigns, analyzing responses to television spots and online campaigns; Calculated voter counts to model the movement in voter opinion after media campaigns and elections; Performed general candidate research and vetting; [and] Modeled possible campaign structure and calculated cost benefit models.” After his defeat by Republican Carl DeMaio and Democrat Bob Filner in last June’s mayoral primary, ex-GOP assemblyman Fletcher took a job at Qualcomm, whose chairman and CEO Paul Jacobs had been a key financial backer of the Fletcher campaign.