MapLight Report: U.S. Senate Candidates Raise Most Money Out-of-State
Only 22% of Candidates Raised at Least Two-Thirds of Their Funds In-State
BERKELEY, CA—Nov. 5, 2012—MapLight, a nonpartisan research organization that tracks money in politics, released a report today, Remote Control, that examines the geographic origins of money received by the campaigns of candidates for the U.S. Senate in the upcoming 2012 election. The study found that as of June 30, 2012, 51% of the itemized contributions for the 2012 senatorial election were from out-of-state sources. This is roughly consistent with figures from previous elections: In 2008, 60% came from out-of-state sources; in 2010, that number was 45%.
Click here to see a list of the top 15 recipients of out-of-state contributions for the 2012 election cycle.
"Senators are crisscrossing their states saying they work for voters, but more than half of their money comes from out-of-state donors," said Daniel G. Newman, co-founder and president of MapLight. "If money is equal to free speech, the rest of the country has a bigger say in selecting your senator than you do."
KEY FINDINGS:
Over the past three election cycles,
- 51% of all contributions to 180 senatorial campaigns were made by people other than the candidates’ constituents.
- Only 22% of candidates raised at least two-thirds of their funds in-state (39 out of 180).
- 60% of all Senate candidates raised half or more of their campaign funds outside their home state (108 out of 180 candidates).
- 30% of candidates raised two-thirds or more of their campaign funds from outside their state (54 out of 180).
OVERVIEW:
MapLight analyzed campaign contributions given to 180 candidates for the U.S. Senate—including incumbent senators and major opponents—for the 2008, 2010, and 2012 election cycles. Candidates raised almost $935 million in itemized campaign funds during the past five and a half years. Of those funds, $478 million, or 51%, came from out-of-state; $455 million, or 49%, came from in-state; and the remaining $2 million (0.2%) could not be definitively located.
| Cycle | Out-of-State | In-State | Unknown | Total | |||
| Amount | % of Total | Amount | % of Total | Amount | % of Total | ||
| 2012 | $ 123,424,691 | 51.3% | $ 116,662,285 | 48.5% | $ 654,838 | 0.3% | $ 240,741,814 |
| 2010 | $ 188,874,740 | 45.0% | $ 229,716,311 | 54.7% | $ 1,044,792 | 0.2% | $ 419,635,843 |
| 2008 | $ 165,551,401 | 60.3% | $ 108,415,035 | 39.5% | $ 555,790 | 0.2% | $ 274,522,226 |
| Total | $ 477,850,832 | 51.1% | $ 454,793,631 | 48.6% | $ 2,255,420 | 0.2% | $ 934,899 |
TABLES:
Table 1a - Top 15 Out-of-State Contributions by Senator, sorted by % out-of-state - 2012 Election Cycle
"Rank #1" = Highest percentage of contributions received from out-of-state
| Rank | Election Year, Name, Party, and State | Out-of-State $ | % | In-State $ |
% | Unknown State $ |
% | Total $ | |||
| ALL CANDIDATES | 123,424,691 | 51.3% | 116,662,285 | 48.5% | 654,838 | 0.3% | 240,741,814 | ||||
| #1 | 2012 | HATCH, ORRIN G | R | UT | 5,452,734 | 95.2% | 250,560 | 4.4% | 24,775 | 0.4% | 5,728,069 |
| #2 | 2012 | BARRASSO, JOHN | R | WY | 2,464,202 | 93.3% | 177,150 | 6.7% | - | 0.0% | 2,641,352 |
| #3 | 2012 | CARPER, THOMAS R | D | DE | 2,203,617 | 89.8% | 249,237 | 10.2% | 1,000 | 0.0% | 2,453,854 |
| #4 | 2012 | SANDERS, BERNARD | I | VT | 1,215,630 | 89.1% | 147,870 | 10.8% | 700 | 0.1% | 1,364,200 |
| #5 | 2012 | WHITEHOUSE, SHELDON II | D | RI | 2,427,775 | 84.9% | 428,916 | 15.0% | 3,000 | 0.1% | 2,859,691 |
| #6 | 2012 | TESTER, JON | D | MT | 5,218,436 | 83.0% | 1,055,745 | 16.8% | 12,650 | 0.2% | 6,286,831 |
| #7 | 2012 | REHBERG, DENNIS RAY | R | MT | 2,711,714 | 82.2% | 588,923 | 17.8% | - | 0.0% | 3,300,637 |
| #8 | 2012 | WICKER, ROGER F | R | MS | 1,871,524 | 82.1% | 384,250 | 16.9% | 24,500 | 1.1% | 2,280,274 |
| #9 | 2012 | MANCHIN, JOE III | D | WV | 2,775,289 | 80.6% | 611,842 | 17.8% | 54,500 | 1.6% | 3,441,631 |
| #10 | 2012 | HEITKAMP, HEIDI | D | ND | 989,829 | 77.4% | 288,256 | 22.6% | - | 0.0% | 1,278,085 |
| #11 | 2012 | BALDWIN, TAMMY | D | WI | 2,709,146 | 76.7% | 823,969 | 23.3% | 1,000 | 0.0% | 3,534,115 |
| #12 | 2012 | KERREY, J ROBERT | D | NE | 1,653,187 | 74.9% | 554,884 | 25.1% | - | 0.0% | 2,208,071 |
| #13 | 2012 | BERG, RICHARD A | R | ND | 2,031,915 | 73.0% | 753,211 | 27.0% | - | 0.0% | 2,785,126 |
| #14 | 2012 | BERKLEY, SHELLEY | D | NV | 4,062,753 | 71.2% | 1,640,067 | 28.7% | 5,500 | 0.1% | 5,708,320 |
| #15 | 2012 | KLOBUCHAR, AMY J | D | MN | 2,778,152 | 68.9% | 1,254,690 | 31.1% | - | 0.0% | 4,032,842 |
Table 1b: 2012 Election Cycle: Out-of-State Contributions by Senator, sorted by state
Table 2a: 2008, 2010, and 2012 Election Cycles: Out-of-State Contributions by Senator, sorted by % out-of-state
Table 2b: 2008, 2010, and 2012 Election Cycles: Out-of-State Contributions by Senator, sorted by state
A link to the Remote Control full report can be found here, http://maplight.info/Documents/RemoteControl2012.pdf.
A link to this press release can be found here.
ABOUT MAPLIGHT:
MapLight, a nonpartisan political money tracker, allows users to gain unique insights into how campaign contributions affect policy so they can draw their own conclusions about how money influences our political system. Data sources include GovTrack.us; Center for Responsive Politics (OpenSecrets.org); Federal Election Commission (FEC.gov); National Institute on Money in State Politics (FollowTheMoney.org); California Legislative Council (leginfo.ca.gov); Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (http://www.wisdc.org/); and the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (http://gab.wi.gov/). To learn more, visit www.maplight.org. If our work has been helpful to you, please consider supporting us.
