Like it or not, it’s standard practice for campaigns — like nearly any buyer of paid TV — to pay commissions of 10% – 15% to those who place their TV advertisements.  The buying function is frequently linked to the process of formulating the campaign’s message (including speeches, direct mail pieces, and the like) and making the ads, such that often the same entity that produces the ads also coordinates, or carries out, the ad buy (and pockets, or splits with someone who collaborates, the commission, which is the real money in campaign consulting).  It’s surely a fair question as to whether conflict is created when one person, or a series of tightly related entities, controls too many of these functions — including management of the campaign itself.  But there’s no news here.