In the race for United States Congress from the fourth district of Kansas between Democrat Raj Goyle and Republican Mike Pompeo, there’s a distinct difference in the nature and source of campaign contributions for the two candidates. So far, 70 percent of Goyle’s campaign contributions have come from donors outside Kansas, with Washington DC being the metropolitan area with the highest source of contributions.
Analysis of campaign contributions may be found at OpenSecrets.org, a project of the Center for Responsive Politics. The following tables are based on data through the last comprehensive reporting period, which ended June 30, 2010.
As of that date, Goyle had raised $1,255,403, and Pompeo had raised $935,084.
The distribution between in-state and out-of-state donors is this:
In Kansas Out of Kansas
Raj Goyle $306,151 (30%) $721,322 (70%)
Mike Pompeo $646,572 (79%) $167,743 (21%)
During the primary election, a frequent criticism of Pompeo made by his opponents was that he was a “Washington insider,” and that was where much of his support and campaign funds were coming from. When looking at the metropolitan areas that contributions have come from, we see that little of Pompeo’s campaign contributions came from Washington, while Washington is the single largest source of Goyle’s funds, outpacing Wichita, the dominant population center in the fourth Congressional district of Kansas:
For Raj Goyle: Metro Area Total WASHINGTON, DC-MD-VA-WV $195,827 WICHITA $169,851 NEW YORK $109,385 KANSAS CITY, MO-KS $105,400 SAN FRANCISCO $35,552 For Mike Pompeo: Metro Area Total WICHITA $585,617 CHICAGO $20,400 WASHINGTON, DC-MD-VA-WV $18,326 KANSAS CITY, MO-KS $17,250 DALLAS $11,950
An area of concern for some voters is the influence of political action committees (PACs). In the primary election, Pompeo’s opponents made frequent charges that he was beholden to PAC money. Looking again at data from OpenSecrets, we see that Goyle has received $76,250 in contributions from sources that OpenSecrets classifies as PACs. The figure for Pompeo is $28,000.
OpenSecrets also classifies contributions based on the industry of the donor. For each candidate, here are the top five industries that made contributions:
For Raj Goyle: Sector Total Lawyers & Lobbyists $120,538 Finance/Insur/RealEst $104,500 Ideology/Single-Issue $100,629 Other $75,094 Health $72,403 For Mike Pompeo: Sector Total Finance/Insur/RealEst $102,993 Energy/Nat Resource $62,850 Construction $35,950 Other $35,700 Lawyers & Lobbyists $33,150
In the Republican primary, Pompeo’s opponents charged that he was too close to lobbyists, but this category made up relatively little of his campaign dollars. If lobbyist contributions are a concern for voters, this industry category is the leading source of contributions for Goyle.
An area where Goyle does better than Pompeo is in what OpenSecrets calls “quality of disclosure,” meaning how well the contributions include the names of donors and their occupations and employers. For Goyle, 3.1 percent of the contributions (based on dollar amounts) have “incomplete” or “none” for these pieces of data. For Pompeo, the figure is 11.8 percent.
These reports include contributions made only through June 30, 2010. The focus at that time was the primary election, more for Republicans than Democrats, as Goyle faced an inexperienced and under-funded candidate, although at one time Goyle trailed in a poll. Now that the general election is the focus for both candidates, the characteristics and distribution of contributions may change.
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