The trickiest question about the Ben Carson campaign is whether or not the former surgeon is himself in on the scam. My guess is that he’s not. Ben Carson strikes me as many things — naive, befuddled, deeply weird, woefully ignorant and incurious about everything other than surgery — but I don’t think he’s particularly cunning. So I suspect he was probably just duped into being the front for this money-making enterprise without ever fully understanding that that’s all it ever was. I’d guess he hasn’t even negotiated a fair share of the take.

If that’s true, then Carson is innocent of being in on the grift, but still not entirely innocent. He’s still guilty of a staggering arrogance. You should run for president, the grifters told him, and he responded by saying, “Yes, that makes perfect sense. Who better than me?”
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And let’s be clear about this: The Ben Carson for President campaign has functioned as a money-making scam. It has not functioned as anything like an actual campaign with any plan or goal of getting Ben Carson elected to anything. People have been writing about this since last year — usually with cagey, question-mark headlines. “Is Carson for Prez a Direct Mail Scam?” Josh Marshall asked last November. His answer: Sure seems to be. “Is Ben Carson Running for President?” Jonathan Chait asked. His answer: He does not seem to be. And here’s Jeet Heer, this month, asking “Is Ben Carson’s campaign an elaborate scam?” Well, if you’ve gotta ask …

Heer is referring to Josh Israel’s report for Think Progress, which addresses all those questions while managing not to put them in the headline: “As Ben Carson’s Campaign Tanked, Top Advisors Reaped Millions.”

Though his campaign raised more than $22 million over the final three months of 2015 — the most of any Republican hopeful — he ended the year a seemingly spent force. … But while Carson declined in the polls, a small group saw its fortunes on the rise: his campaign advisors and consultants. Already under fire for a campaign spending model that bore the marking of a direct mail scam, Carson’s newly disclosed fourth quarter spending shows huge payments to companies controlled by his current and former advisors.

The campaign spent more than $27 million over that period. $4.7 million of that went to Eleventy Marketing Group, mostly for its “digital media/web service.” The Akron, Ohio-based company president, Ken Dawson, is also the Carson campaign’s chief marketing officer. … Eleventy’s other clients include TMA Direct.

TMA Direct received $2.8 million from the Carson campaign over the same period for web services, mailings, and list rental. Mike Murray is Carson’s senior advisor for grassroots marketing and TMA’s president and CEO. His official biography also notes that he founded the American Legacy Political Action Committee and that its Save Our Healthcare program was chaired by Carson. Murray also serves as managing partner for Precision Data Management, which received an additional $217,000 from the campaign for web services.

Communication Management Source hauled in more than $1.2 million from Carson’s campaign coffers for travel expenses. The company is run by Joann Parker, wife of then-Carson finance chairman Dean Parker. His Vita Capital also received more than $138,000 for supplies, travel, and event expenses. Dean Parker was one of many Carson staffers to resign last month, amid criticism of his reported $20,000 monthly fee. …

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