Posted on 04/26/2010 5:21:35 PM PDT by Born Conservative
According to a map of congressional districts, Paul Kanjorski (D), the 13-term Congressional incumbent, officially represents the people of northeast Pennsylvania's 11th congressional district. But Mr. Kanjorski's campaign wallet tells a different story, with 57 percent of personal contributions toward his re-election campaign coming from outside the state.
Though Mr. Kanjorski's high percentage of donations from beyond state lines is not typical, he is hardly the only incumbent representative in the state with a large slice of campaign cash from non-Pennsylvanians during this election cycle.
And it's not only long-time incumbents who are benefitting.
Patrick Murphy - who was first elected in 2006 and represents Pennsylvania's eighth district - has received 43 percent of his individual contributions from out-of-state, including more than $93,000 from Chicago, more than $70,000 each from New York City and Washington D.C., and $17,000 from donors in Los Angeles.
The $411,000 in out-of-state fundraising Mr. Murphy has accumulated comes from 27 states, which have helped him amass the second-largest war chest among incumbent representatives from Pennsylvania in this election cycle, an impressive haul for a sophomore Congressman. Click here to view larger Campaign contributions 042310
Allyson Schwartz, whose 13th district includes North Philadelphia and central Montgomery County, has raised $270,000 from non-state sources, 33 percent of her total contributions. She has received more than $78,000 from sources in New York City and nearly $15,000 from sources in Boston.
In Mr. Kanjorski's case, funds come from 30 different states. During the current election cycle, he has received more than $46,000 from people in New York and more than $34,000 from people in Washington, along with donations from as far away as Ogden, Utah, and San Diego, California. Of his $116,000 in contributions from inside Pennsylvania, nearly $70,000 has come from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh combined, and neither of those cities are part of Mr. Kanjorski's congressional district.
"This is further evidence that Paul Kanjorski does not have any support on the ground from this congressional district," said Vince Galko, a spokesman for one of Mr. Kanjorski's potential Republican opponents in November, Hazelton Mayor Lou Barletta.
Mr. Galko pointed to Mr. Kanjorski's high number of donations from New York City, home to many of the financial firms the congressman is expected to regulate as the second-highest ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee.
Calls to Mr. Kanjorski's campaign for comment were not returned. Calls to the campaigns of Mr. Murphy and Ms. Schwartz were either not answered or not returned.
At the other end of the fundraising spectrum are representatives Glenn Thompson (R-Centre), Jim Gerlach (R-Chester), and Joe Pitts (R-Chester), who have raised 94 percent, 90 percent, and 89 percent, respectively, from sources inside Pennsylvania.
Out-of-state donations are also playing a role in Pennsylvania's senatorial race.
Incumbent U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter has raised 47 percent of his more than $9 million from non-state sources, while his primary challenger, U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak (D) of the seventh district, has accumulated $400,000 - 31 percent of his fundraising dollars - from outside Pennsylvania. Republican candidate Pat Toomey has fundraised just over $1.1 million from out-of-state, half of his total.
All told, Pennsylvania's 18 incumbent U.S. representatives have collected more than $1.68 million from out-of-state individual contributions during this election cycle, accounting for 23 percent of individual campaign contributions. On average, those incumbents have donors from 14 states, not including the District of Columbia.
All financial figures included in this article were taken from databases compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political finances.
Ping
In MN....Michele Bachmann gets more from other states than she does from MN....
Yeah but she's a national figure. Who's giving all the cash to Murphy? Guess that's why he never worried when we kept calling, begging him not to vote for every Democratic bill that was presented.
November can’t come fast enough . Benedict Arlan Kanjo and Carney will be sent to the political trash heap !
I’ve held for some time that if we really wanted to alter the face of American elections, campaign funds would be restricted to individual donations from vote eligible citizens physically residing in the district to be represented. Somebody in California shouldn’t be paying for the election of a Senator from Pennsylvania. I note with a little pride that my representative lists the lowest out of state funding in the group. GT is a good man. Hope he stays that way.
ping
ping for later
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