Home › Permalink to Filthy Lucre

Filthy Lucre

Mon, 02/04/2008 - 08:45 — Rottenchester
The FEC has updated fundraising summaries for both Eric Massa and Randy Kuhl.  The totals for Political Action Committee (PAC) and individual contributions are essentially mirror opposites for the two candidates.  The majority of Kuhl's money is PAC money, and the majority of Massa's is contributions from individuals.

Since Kuhl continues to rely on corporate donors, it's no surprise that he's having trouble raising funds.  Most observers believe that House Democrats will increase their majority, so giving money to a minority back-bencher is not a great investment in influence buying.   And, as commenter James pointed out, the rumors about Kuhl's retirement are probably going to lead corporate donors to hold off on giving to Kuhl until they're sure he's in the race.  Corporate contributors to James Walsh (NY-25) were burned by his late retirement.  They won't want to make the same mistake twice.

Kuhl isn't the only Republican having trouble fundraising. The Hill newspaper has a detailed analysis listing other Republican incumbents who have fallen behind their opponents in the money race.

Comments

Mon, 02/04/2008 - 10:57 — ElmerK (not verified)

I see there is only about a 5% difference in cash on hand if you consider Eric's $70,000 debt. I wish I had the time to analyze these reports. A quick browse through Eric's donations gives one the impression that a majority of his fund raising is from three sources:
1. People who live out of the district.
2. Unions
3. People who live in the northern end of the district.

Mon, 02/04/2008 - 11:19 — Rottenchester

A good overview of fundraising by a number of criteria (location of contributor, type of contributor, etc) is at OpenSecrets.

Here's their 29th page:

http://www.opensecrets.org/races/summary.asp?ID=NY29&Cycle=2008

According to the zipcode analysis, Massa and Kuhl have similar number of in-state vs out-of-state donors:

http://www.opensecrets.org/races/instate.asp?ID=NY29&cycle=2008&special=N

Of course, in NY, the in-state vs out-of-state distinction isn't as good a metric as in rural states, since NYC is the home of a lot of big-money donors.

They've gotten a lot quicker about updating their stats so it's a good place to look for a quick overview of who's giving what.