Monday, October 17, 2005
A Look At Campaign Finances: Wisconsin 8th Congressional District
by Tom Bozzo
My good buddy John Gard has raised the most money, $465,498. He's also spent the most by far, $141,410, versus $98,279 for the four Democrats combined. Reading blogs must be expensive, else Gard is a crackerjack student of DeLay-style fiscal conservatism [sic]. The three main Democratic contenders (Wall, Nusbaum, and Kagen) are not in bad shape at all, assuming they can avoid killing each other in the primary season.
Gard also leads the field in corporate and PAC contributions, with $127,435 versus $4,250 for the Democrats. Free to a good home, here are some of Gard's bigger corporate and PAC supporters in the most recent reporting cycle:
Really, it's a lot of fun to follow the flow of funds in the campaign finance reports, if you find profoundly depressing evidence of how corporations buy and sell politicians "a lot of fun." For instance, the SBC Employee PAC got $5,000 from the America's Majority Trust. (The SBC PAC spreads its money around very broadly, though its bias is solidly rightward.) America's Majority Trust has its own long list of association and corporate donors; while officially non-partisan, you can see which majority they trust here.
It's campaign finance reporting time, and the finances of the 8th CD candidates are the biggest local news.
My good buddy John Gard has raised the most money, $465,498. He's also spent the most by far, $141,410, versus $98,279 for the four Democrats combined. Reading blogs must be expensive, else Gard is a crackerjack student of DeLay-style fiscal conservatism [sic]. The three main Democratic contenders (Wall, Nusbaum, and Kagen) are not in bad shape at all, assuming they can avoid killing each other in the primary season.
Gard also leads the field in corporate and PAC contributions, with $127,435 versus $4,250 for the Democrats. Free to a good home, here are some of Gard's bigger corporate and PAC supporters in the most recent reporting cycle:
- American Beverage Licensees PAC, $2,500;
- Bowling Proprietors Association of America PAC, $1,000 (there really is an association for everything!)
- The G-P Employees Fund of Georgia-Pacific Corporation, $5,000;
- National Beer Wholesalers Assocation PAC, $5,000 (what is it about Gard and alcohol?);
- Police Officer PAC, $5,000 (funny, I thought concealed carry was just an unfunded mandate for businesses to put up signage banning guns from their premises);
- Prosperity PAC, $5,000 (an Alexandria, VA-based PAC mostly funded by a variety of corporate and association donors);
- R. J. Reynolds PAC, $2,000;
- SBC Communications Inc. Employee Federal PAC, $4,000;
- TDS Telecommunications Corp. PAC, $2,000 (my friendly neighborhood CLEC/ISP, d'ohh);
- Wellpoint Inc. WellPAC, $2,500.
Really, it's a lot of fun to follow the flow of funds in the campaign finance reports, if you find profoundly depressing evidence of how corporations buy and sell politicians "a lot of fun." For instance, the SBC Employee PAC got $5,000 from the America's Majority Trust. (The SBC PAC spreads its money around very broadly, though its bias is solidly rightward.) America's Majority Trust has its own long list of association and corporate donors; while officially non-partisan, you can see which majority they trust here.
