All politics may be local, but not fundraising.
Only 36 percent of the cash from big individual donors to House members’ re-election campaigns comes from inside the lawmakers’ districts, according to a study by the independent Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign spending.
The figure only takes into account contributions of more than $200 because smaller donations don’t have to be itemized on Federal Election Commission campaign finance reports. But the study, which includes FEC data covering the 2014 election cycle, highlights how House members routinely depend on big-money donors who can’t vote for them.
Longtime Democratic incumbent Reps. Grace Napolitano of California and John Conyers of Michigan haven’t raised a dime from individuals contributing more than $200 who live in their districts, the study shows.
At the other end of the table, 89 percent of individuals giving more than $200 to Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s campaign live in the freshman Democrat’s El Paso, Texas-based district. Next on the list is Rep. John Fleming, R-La., with 84 percent of his big campaign donations coming from local sources.
Congressmen with national profiles, such as party leaders, longtime incumbents and chairmen of influential committees, tend to cast a wider geographic net when looking for money. These lawmakers typically distribute much of that cash to the party or party members involved in tight election battles.
Only 2 percent of the almost $12.3 million that House Speaker John Boehner has raised has come from big individual donors living in the Republican’s southern Ohio district.
And of the almost $846,000 House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has raised from big individual donors, 26 percent has come from her California district.
The collective wealth and the economy of a district also plays a big part in how much money a lawmaker raises inside his or her district, the study suggests.
“Some districts have very low per-capita incomes, so you may find members of Congress who represent those sort of more economically depressed areas raising a lot of money from outside their district,” said Viveca Novak, the Center for Responsive Politics’ editorial director.
Pelosi’s San Francisco’s district, for example, is considerably wealthier than the mostly blue-collar Cincinnati area that Boehner represents, giving her a potentially wider donor pool closer to home than her Republican counterpart.
The working-class nature of Napolitano’s east Los Angeles County district also means the lawmaker frequently must look elsewhere for campaign donations in wealthier areas, a campaign staffer said.
The staffer added that she receives a significant amount of small donations that aren’t required to be itemized on campaign finance records.
“We can’t ask people for $1,000 in our district because they just don’t have that kind of money,” the staffer said.
And because of redistricting, Napolitano has represented three Southern California districts in her almost 16 years in office, further contributing to a dispersed donor base.
Lawmakers who have championed certain popular issues also typically attract money from individuals donors away from home, such as freshman Rep. Tammy Duckworth, who lost both of her legs during a helicopter crash while serving in the Army during the Iraq War.
The Illinois Democrat, seen by many as a cause célèbre for the rights of veterans and the disabled, has received only two percent of the more than $950,000 she has received from big individual donors from inside her district.
But O’Rourke, despite representing one of the country’s poorest districts, said he is uncomfortable soliciting money outside of El Paso.
“My mission in Congress is El Paso … and that drives everything I do out of my office,” said the lawmaker, who has no Washington-based fundraiser, a rarity on Capitol Hill. “To be soliciting money and support from folks who I didn’t know and maybe didn’t have those connections with wasn’t right.”
But O’Rourke added he empathizes with his Democratic colleagues involved in tight, expensive re-election battles who thus feel the need to take cash from out-of-town donors.
“I don’t know what I would do [if I were them]. I may then very well have a very aggressive D.C. fundraising operation,” he said. “So I do have to admit I’ve got the luxury to do this (my way). It would really be put to the test if I had to raise $5 million, which I don’t have to do.”
