Despite a year of Democratic attacks on Republicans for being controlled by wealthy donors such as Charles and David Koch, it turns out that big donors contributed more heavily to Democrats during the 2014 midterm elections.
Of the top 100 individual donors to political groups this year, more than half gave to Democratic or Democratically-aligned ones, according to the Associated Press. Specifically, of the $128 million given by the top 10 individual donors to outside political groups, $91 million went to Democratic ones.
Among the 183 groups that gave more than $100,000, the top of the list was overwhelmingly pro-Democrat, giving them a 3-to-1 cash advantage. In fact, the two biggest super PACs of 2014 both backed Democrats: Senate Majority PAC and House Majority PAC.
Overall during this year’s campaign season, donors who gave more than $1 million sent roughly 60 percent to liberal groups, according to AP.
The figures, which are based on data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics from reports filed with the Federal Election Commission until Nov. 16 and with the Internal Revenue Services until Aug. 4, cover only super PACs, earmarked donations to nonprofit groups and money sent to party-aligned independent expenditure committees — thus miss out on some organizations that do not have to disclose how they raise or spend donations.
For example, Charles and Elizabeth Koch reported $2 million in giving to groups that have to disclose donations before the reporting period and another $3 million after it.
However, the Koch Brothers back Americans for Prosperity, which spent more than $125 million on the midterm elections — and it is unclear how much of their own money they put into the organization.
“They’re total hypocrites when it comes to this subject,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus told AP. “They’ve made a living off campaign talking points when, in reality, they’ve been raking in more money from millionaire donors than Republicans for quite a while.”
