Who Will Represent Maryland?

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has reported the results of fundraising by Congressional Candidates in the First District for the quarter ending June 30.  Not surprisingly, Andy Harris continues to lead.  The Republican raised avout $432,000 during the quarter and lent his campaign $100,000 of his personal funds.  He reported about $609,000 in cash on hand at the end of the quarter.

Frank Kratovil didn't do badly, though.  He raised about $376,000 during the quarter and had $454,000 in cash at the end of the quarter.  So, Andy Harris has a lead of about $150,000 in cash at the end of the quarter - about $100,000 of which is his personal loan to the campaign.

But, aside from Harris's loan to his own campaign, where did the money come from?  A look at the details reveals some interesting data.  I looked at all the individual donations to each candidate of $200 or more reported by the FEC.  Then I looked at the source of the money.

Let's start with Frank Kratovil.  Individual contributions of $200 or more to Kratovil's campaign totalled $303,471 through June 30.  Of that, $287,421 or 94.7 percent, came from persons residing in Maryland.  That is a very high percentage and indicates that Frank Kratovil has the support of Marylanders and will represent them when he is elected to Congress.

Now let's look at Andy Harris.  His individual contributions (of $200 or more) total $916,356 - an impressive amount.  But let's look at where they came from.  Of that only $493,191 or 53.8 percent came from person living in Maryland.  Where did this money come from?  It came from all over the country, primarily through the Club for Growth - a very right-wing anti-tax group which is trying to elect Andy Harris so he will do their bidding in Congress.

Andy Harris isn't running to represent Maryland, he's running to represent the Club for Growth and his wealthy buddies in their attempt to avoid paying even a dime in taxes.  Let's look at those numbers one more time.  Frank Kratovil - 94.7 percent of his individual contributions come from Maryland.  Andy Harris 53.8 percent of his individual contributions come from Maryland.

Now I take a special interest in the Eastern Shore, so I took a look at how much each candidate received from Eastern Shore zip codes (216xx, 218xx,219xx).  This time lets look at Frank Kratovil first.  Of his $303,471 in individual contributions, $155,541 of 51.3 percent came from the Shore.

For Andy Harris, the numbers tell a different story.  Of his individual contributions of $916,356, only $91,277 or 10.0 percent came from the Eastern Shore - sad numbers for a man who claims he will represent the Eastern Shore in Congress.

Fortunately, all those wealthy people who live out of state and are funding Andy Harris's campaign can't vote in Maryland.  Marylanders of the First District need vote for Frank Kratovil, who will represent the people of Maryland, not Andy Harris who will represent his wealthy benefactors from Texas, Florida, Ohio and other states.    

Comments

[Brian Griffiths]

Care to comment on the fact that 87% of Kratovil's funds raised from non-individual entities comes from labor unions: (http://blog.briangriffiths.com/2008/07/kratovil-look-for-union-label.html)?

[Tom Wilson]

Thanks for your comment. That's a fair question and I plan to address it in my next post.