Data Surfer: Out-of-district donations dominate many House coffers

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Data Surfer

Spotlight on valuable information sources on the Web

November 3, 2008

Out-of-district donations dominate many House coffers

Ever wonder how much of your Congress member's campaign funding comes from outside your district? It might surprise you (it did me) that 92 representatives got at least 90 percent of their funds from sources located outside their districts. And that all 92 representatives got at least 70 percent of donations from outside their states. A new online report and searchable database lets you easily rank U.S. House members by the amount and percentage of campaign money coming from non-constituents (2005-2007). Maps show from where most of the donations come for each member and for the House as a whole. Not unexpectedly, much of the out-of-district funding comes from Washington, D.C. lobbyists.

In California, Pete Stark led his House colleagues, with 99.6 percent of his $737,089 in contributions coming from outside his Bay Area district. Locally, Doris Matsui got 86.2 percent of her money from out-of -district; John Doolittle, 62.1 percent; Mike Thompson, 67.5 percent; Wally Herger, 83.6.

The "Remote Control" database is maintained by MapLight, a non-partisan, non-profit web site that "illuminates the connection between campaign donations and legislative votes." In addition to compiling campaign finances for each representative, MapLight analyzes the donations by interest group (lawyers, doctors, insurance, labor unions, etc.) and lets you check how he/she voted on related legislation.

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