Scott Walker's presidential campaign, bloated with staff salaries, paid his sons $1,500 a month

MILWAUKEE – Gov. Scott Walker’s failed presidential campaign paid Walker's two sons $1,500 a month during their father's short time in the race, according to a required report filed with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday.

Walker's campaign reported raising $7.4 million but spent almost as much during the 71 days he was in the race, one of the shortest presidential campaigns in modern history.

Spending, especially salaries on a staff that ballooned to 90 people, doomed the Walker campaign. The filing shows that several top staffers, including Walker's campaign manager, a spokeswoman, and operations director, had more than $200,000 a year salaries.

The governor's two college-age sons, Matt and Alex, were also on the campaign payroll and made a combined $9,562. A Walker spokesman told the Associated Press that they had taken the semester off from college but wouldn't say what they did for the campaign.

The campaign reported having about $985,000 on hand Sept. 30, compared with $161,000 in debts. Walker's campaign still had a $10,471 bill from the Waukesha County Expo Center, where the governor kicked off his campaign in mid-July.

To see the full Walker campaign report, CLICK HERE.

The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the campaign's finances, said Walker's team actually had far more debt that it had pushed into the fourth quarter.

The debt total doesn't include unreleased costs to the State of Wisconsin for the security detail Walker used during the campaign. Walker has pledged to repay what he owes to the state.

Walker, with his campaign quickly running out of money, dropped out of the race Sept. 21.

Walker's third-quarter fundraising haul was better than rivals Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie and Rand Paul. Yet Walker’s former campaign manager, Rick Wiley, has said fundraising had slowed to a trickle in the final weeks of the campaign as Walker stumbled through two debates and made a series of missteps.

Wiley would've made a $211,000 salary if the campaign had lasted a full year, according to Thursday's filing. Walker's communications director and operations director both had more than $200,000 salaries.

"We raised a lot of resources, not as much as other candidates," Walker said earlier this week, ahead of Thursday's filing. He declined to discuss what the numbers would show.

Democrat Hillary Clinton led the way in the third quarter with $28 million raised, to rival Bernie Sanders’ $26 million.

On the Republican side, Ben Carson’s campaign said it had raised $20 million in the quarter, while Jeb Bush brought in more than $13 million.