Money & Politics: Who Gives, Who Gets

FACT SHEET

AMERICANS FOR CAMPAIGN REFORM

Money in Politics: Who Gives <1% of Americans Contribute 80% of Funds ! Less than 0.5 percent of the U.S. population contributed $200 or more to federal candidates in 2008, or 82 percent of total itemized contributions. ! Less than 0.1 percent of Americans contributed $2,300 or more in 2008, or 60 percent of the total. ! Approximately 4 percent of Americans made contributions in any amount in 2008. ! Men contributed 68 percent of all money to federal candidates, compared with 32 percent from women.

Geographic Concentration of Major Donors ! The top 5 metro areas for contributions to federal candidates in 2008 -- New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston -- contributed $726 million, more than the bottom 36 states combined. ! Residents of Manhattan’s Upper East Side (top 5 zip codes) contributed $72 million in 2008, more than each of the bottom 39 states and approximately 50 times the national per capita rate of $9.90. ! A study of racial/ethnic distribution of campaign contributions in the 2000-2004 elections found that 89.4 percent of money came from predominantly non-Hispanic white zip codes and 10.6 percent came from predominantly racial/ethnic minority zip codes.

Fig. 1: Federal Campaign Contribs Breakdown, 2008 !

Size"

Sources: Federal Election Commission, Center for Responsive Politics, Public Campaign!s “The Color of Money” Project

"

Gender

18% 32% 22%

60%

68%

Max. Donors ($2,300+) Larger Donors ($200-$2,300) Small Donors (<$200)

Men Women

Fig. 2: Contributions Per Capita, 2008 (millions) Top Metropolitan Area Zip Codes v. Nationwide New York 10021

600

Los Angeles 90210

390

Washington 20007

376

Chicago 69611

246 10

USA USA 10

Major Industries Top 2008 Contributors ! The top contributing industry sectors -- finance and real estate, lawyers and lobbyists, healthcare, communications, and energy and transportation -provided a combined $1.2 billion in campaign money to federal candidates in 2008. ! Contributions from the top five sectors accounted for nearly 50 percent of the total $2.4 billion in 2008, compared with 10 percent from ideological/single issue groups and 3 percent from labor unions. ! Industry giving to the two major political parties was roughly even across sectors, with Democrats receiving 56 percent of total contributions.

"

0

150

300

450

600

Fig. 3: Top Five Contributing Sectors, 2008 (millions) Finance & Real Est

$203

Lawyers & Business

$201

HealthLobbyists

$91

Communications Energy & Transport

$173 $71

$77 DEM REP

$97 $42 $45 $0

$84 $100

JOIN US AT YOU STREET, A GROWING MOVEMENT FOR CAMPAIGN REFORM • WWW.YOUSTREET.ORG 5 BICENTENNIAL SQUARE CONCORD, NH 03301 • TEL 603.227.0626 • [email protected]

$200

$300

$400

FACT SHEET

AMERICANS FOR CAMPAIGN REFORM

Money in Politics: Who Gets Incumbents Out-Raise Challengers 5 to 1 ! Incumbent candidates for the House raised an average of $1.4 million in 2008, more than four times the amount raised by challengers and more than twice the amount raised by open seat candidates. ! Incumbent candidates for the Senate raised an average of $8.7 million, almost six times more than challengers and nearly four times more than open seat candidates. ! In keeping with historical trends, incumbents were overwhelmingly reelected in 2008, winning 94% of House races and 86% of Senate races.

Major Industries Strongly Favor Incumbents ! Incumbent candidates received the lion’s share of campaign contributions from major industry groups in 2008, regardless of political party. ! Energy industry contributors, including oil, gas, electric, and coal interests, directed 82 percent of their campaign contributions to incumbents in 2008. ! Wall Street contributors, including the finance and insurance industry, directed 74 percent of their campaign contributions to incumbents in 2008. ! Pharmaceutical industry contributors directed 89 percent of their giving to incumbents in 2008.

Industry Targets Key Committee Members ! Energy interests contributed an average of $393,000 and $280,000 to Senate and House members of the key energy and environmental committees, 3 to 6 times their average giving to all Members. ! Finance and insurance interests contributed an average of $2.2 million and $1.5 million respectively to Senate and House members of key financial, banking, and tax committees, 10 times their average for all Members. ! Pharmaceutical interests contributed an average of $210,432 and $163,280, respectively, to Senate and House members of key health, tax, and regulatory committees, 3 to 6 times their average for all Members. Sources: Analysis of Federal Election Commission [www.fec.gov] and Center for Responsive Politics [www.opensecrets.org] data

Fig. 1: Avg. Funding per Incumbent, Challenger, Open Seat Candidate, 2008 (millions) Incumbent

Challenger

$2

$10

$1

$8

$1

Open Seat

$6

$1 $4

$1

$2

$0 $0

$0 House

Senate

Fig. 2: Percentage of House and Senate Incumbents Reelected, 1990-2008 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 House

Senate

0.2 0 "90

"92

"94

"96

"98

"00

"02

"04

"06

"08

Fig. 3: Percentage of Industry Contributions to Incumbents v. Challengers, 2008 1.0 Incumbents

Challengers

0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 Energy

Finance/Insurance

JOIN US AT YOU STREET, A GROWING MOVEMENT FOR CAMPAIGN REFORM • WWW.YOUSTREET.ORG 5 BICENTENNIAL SQUARE CONCORD, NH 03301 • TEL 603.227.0626 • [email protected]

Pharma