A few months back I stuck my nose into MEC filings for the 4th District candidates for City Council. I wanted to know two things: what was the average donation and what percentage of the donors are from Kansas City, Missouri? I'd expect that some donations would come from outside the city. I'd be concerned by any candidate who couldn't get donations from friends and relatives. What I'm looking for is someone with disproportionate support outside of the city. In a crowded primary it's possible for anyone to make it to the general.Here's where the numbers stand. I was not surprised that Mike Burke has few donors and a high average or that Sly James is just the opposite. What was a surprise was that Mark Funkhouser, who buzzed into office as a supposed man of the people, has the fewest donors with the highest average. Jim Rowland's numbers stand out. He's the median for average donations and one off median for total donations. Yet he can only get 45% of his donations from Kansas City.
A few things to note. These numbers are from reports filed in the 2010 Calendar year. Money donations and in-kind donations are lumped together. Donations from the candidates themselves are excluded. This means that total donations may not match numbers reported in other media. Klein, Chastain, and Wheeler don't yet have anything to report.
Candidate | Total Donors | KC % | MO % | Average Donation | Total Donations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mike Burke | 119 | 66% | 76% | $521.30 | $62,034.80 |
Mark Funkhouser | 47 | 79% | 81% | $844.89 | $39,710.00 |
Deb Hermann | 311 | 75% | 84% | $298.99 | $92,986.61 |
Sly James | 571 | 70% | 78% | $234.63 | $133,976.33 |
Jim Rowland | 195 | 45% | 64% | $302.88 | $59,061.29 |
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4 comments:
Interesting chart. The details regarding Jim Rowland garnering less than 50% of his contributions from KCMO residents should be a wake up call to the voters. The detail on that is most of his contributions came from ONE company. Burns and McDonnell. Must be a company policy to force their employees to contribute to whoever the boss says to contribute to. Look for study after study on the taxpayer dime.
I'm hoping that by drawing attention to such things, the outliers like Rowland will look for more donations in Kansas City. Not that he's my guy, mind you. But if he comes out of the primary we're going to want his campaign on a local dime.
Ask how many people in KC know who Rowland is
Are you telling me not to worry about it?
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