Category: Fall 2008 Newswire
N.H. House Races Draw Cash from Across Country
OUT-OF-STATE CASH
New Hampshire Union Leader
Jenny Paul
Boston University Washington News Service
10/29/08
WASHINGTON – New Hampshire’s U.S. House races are garnering interest – and cash – from all corners of the nation.
All four candidates for the state’s two House seats have raised tens of thousands of dollars from out-of-state donors, with most money coming from individuals in Massachusetts, New York and California, according to campaign finance data filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Democratic incumbent Paul Hodes, who represents the 2nd District, has raised at least $482,000 so far during the campaign from people who live in other states, the most of any of the four New Hampshire candidates, according to campaign finance data. The figure does not include contributions from political action committees, formed by industries and interest groups to raise and contribute money to candidates. It also does not take into account funds from individuals who have contributed less than $200 to the campaign, because the campaigns are not required to report details about such donors.
Out-of-state donors are responsible for nearly half of the $1 million Hodes has raised from individuals during the campaign. In total, Hodes has raised $1.8 million since the campaign began.
“People across the country view the congressman as a leader, as a leader of his peers and in Congress,” campaign spokesman Mark Bergman said. “There has been some support around the country, but he’s proud of his support raising over $550,000 from 1,500 individuals in New Hampshire.”
That’s not unusual, according to a study reported by the Center for Responsive Politics:
between 2005 and 2007, 97 percent of members of the House received more than half of their contributions from donors living outside of their districts.
Many of Hodes’ out-of-state contributions come from residents of New York, who contributed about $144,000, and Massachusetts, who contributed about $156,000.Hodes has connections to New York because he was born in New York City and his mother still resides there, Bergman said. He said it makes sense for Massachusetts residents to donate to the campaign because the state and New Hampshire share similar interests.
Benjamin Schwartz, a writer and former commercial fisherman from Wendell, Mass., has donated $4,600 to Hodes’ campaign, the maximum amount allowed under federal law. Schwartz, who was a Massachusetts delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, said he contributes to Democratic candidates around the country to “help the Democratic agenda.”
“The House of Representatives is a national decision-making body, and so it is important if I want to help a certain agenda that I believe in to move forward, like energy independence and positive social policies, then I should support congressmen who are in election fights and in whom I believe, regardless of where they come from,” Schwartz said. “I support my local congressman, but I don’t have an agenda beyond making sure that good public servants like Paul get reelected.”
Schwartz cited Hodes’ push to upgrade the Manchester Veterans Affairs Medical Center to a full-service veterans’ hospital as one of the reasons he supports the candidate.
“I may not be from New Hampshire, and I may not be a veteran, but I care about these things,” he said.
Hodes raked in at least $41,000 from out-of-state individuals from Aug. 21 to Sept. 30, according to his latest campaign report. His challenger, Jennifer Horn, raised about $3,000 from out-of-state donors during the same time period, and at least $29,000 from them since the campaign began. David Chesley, Horn’s campaign manager, said most of the out-of-state contributions came from members of Horn’s family.
Horn’s campaign has raised $226,000 so far in the campaign, just more than 12 percent of Hodes’ total haul. Horn also loaned her campaign $194,600. As an incumbent, Hodes was bound to have a fundraising advantage, Chesley said.
“People in New Hampshire aren’t sold on Paul Hodes,” Chesley said. “Paul Hodes is taking the out-of-state interests to influence New Hampshire races, and, in the end, the people who influence New Hampshire races are the voters in the 2nd District of New Hampshire.”
In the 1st District, Democratic incumbent Carol Shea-Porter and Republican challenger Jeb Bradley are in a tight race – in the polls and in terms of money raised.
Shea-Porter holds a 5 percentage-point lead over Bradley, according to a poll the University of New Hampshire Survey Center conducted last week for the Boston Globe. In that poll, 44 percent supported Shea-Porter, 39 percent preferred Bradley and 14 percent were undecided. A UNH poll released at the end of September showed Bradley with a 45-to-42 percent lead.
Pia Carusone, the spokeswoman for Shea-Porter’s campaign, said she thinks the congresswoman is connecting with voters by focusing on the state of the economy and other issues that matter to middle-class voters and will do so until Election Day.
“We’re just going to continue working hard,” Carusone said. “We’ve got a lot of events lined up and we’re going to be out there talking to people about issues that matter, like health care and the war in Iraq. People connect with the congresswoman on those issues.”
Shea-Porter has raised $1.25 million since the campaign began, while Bradley has raised about $1.1 million, including $200,000 that he personally loaned to his campaign, according to campaign finance data.
Between Aug. 21 and Sept. 30, Democrats from other states rallied to fill Shea-Porter’s coffers, making about $45,000 in contributions to her campaign. Shea-Porter has raised about $200,000 from out-of-state individuals during the entire campaign.
Carusone played down the value of out-of-state money, noting that the campaign’s average contribution from individual donors is under $100.
“It’s just the strength of the grassroots campaign,” she said. “It’s not like we’re traveling from city to city having high-end events.”
Bradley, who held the 1st District House seat for two terms until he was defeated by Shea-Porter in 2006, has raised about $46,000 from out-of-state individuals, with $2,300 of that raised between Aug. 21 and Sept. 30. Alicia Preston, the Bradley campaign’s spokeswoman, said she thinks Shea-Porter is receiving a large amount of money from outside the state because Democrats are afraid she will lose her seat in the election.
“My interpretation would be that the Democrats are afraid,” Preston said. “They know [Shea-Porter has] represented the interests of Nancy Pelosi [the Democratic Speaker of the House], and that’s not what people in New Hampshire are looking for.”
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$112 Million Allocation for Coastal Enterprises to Aid Community Development
CEI
Bangor Daily News
Guanlei Ren
Boston University Washington News Service
October 28, 2008
WASHINGTON -- Coastal Enterprises Inc., a Wiscasset-based community development organization, has received a federal allocation of $112 million that will allow it to help finance small businesses and development projects in low-income communities.
“Coastal Enterprises continues to provide invaluable services to communities throughout Maine,” Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins said in a joint statement on Oct. 20. “Investing in affordable housing and community development in Maine’s rural and underserved areas will provide an opportunity for economic revitalization.”
The New Markets Tax Credit program, which Congress established in 2000, is aimed at spurring revitalization efforts of low-income and impoverished communities across the United States by providing federal income tax credits to investors.
For Coastal Enterprises, a nonprofit organization that seeks to create jobs by helping to finance small businesses in primarily rural regions of Maine, this is the fifth New Markets Tax Credit allocation it has received, bringing its total to $481 million.
“We receive the tax credit allocation that can be applied to significant investment that qualifies for the program,” said Charlie Spies, the managing director at Coastal Enterprises Capital Management LLC. “We receive allocations but we don’t actually receive dollars.”
Coastal Enterprises Capital Management, a for-profit subsidiary of Coastal Enterprises, helps attract capital to low-income areas using the federal program. Companies or individuals who invest in Coastal Enterprises’ projects that are part of the program receive a federal income tax credit of 39 percent of the amount invested. The tax credit is spread over seven years.
The tax credits provide an incentive to investors to make investments in rural small businesses and low-income communities, Spies said. Under the latest allocation, tax credits can be applied to up to $112 million of investments. If the full allocation is used it would result in tax credits totaling $43.7 million.
Using the tax credit program, Coastal Enterprises already has helped finance 23 projects in the northeastern United States, using $235.5 million of its allocation capacity. This has triggered private capital investment in low-income communities of more than $771 million, according to the company’s Web site.
The 23 projects cover a wide range of industries, such as fishing, insurance, construction and especially sustainable timberlands development and forest conservation.
“We’re finding in our own practice that we are able to help businesses in these communities because getting projects finished, especially now with tight credit markets, is very valuable,” Spies said.
Maine Mutual Group, an insurance company, and Hampton Inn are two projects in Presque Isle that benefited from the program. The insurance company expanded its headquarters building and upgraded its technology infrastructure, allowing the company to hire an additional 45 employees, according to the project’s summary provided by Coastal Enterprises Capital Management.
A new Hampton Inn under construction in Presque Isle will be the first “national brand” hotel in Presque Isle. Using an $11 million allocation, BLD Hospitality is building a 93-room hotel that is planned to open in July 2009. About 40 jobs are expected to be created.
Roger Beaulieu, a managing member of BLD Hospitality, said building the hotel in the current economy is a huge risk.
“With the New Markets Tax Credits, it’s worth taking that risk, because it gave us a better way to financing, which enables us to afford taking that risk,” Beaulieu said. “So if we hadn’t got the New Market Tax Credits, we probably wouldn’t have built the hotel up there.”
More projects are under consideration, Spies said. “We are working on a way to do projects for or do financing for smaller businesses at the half a million dollar range. That is a product that we’re hoping we can roll out before the end of the year.”
“That is the way we are trying to expand use of the program to allow smaller companies to take advantage of it as well,” Spies said.
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Sen. Kennedy Returns to Washington Home
KENNEDY
The New Bedford Standard-Times
Courtney Hime
Boston University Washington News Service
October 28, 2008
WASHINGTON – Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s office confirmed that the senator, who was diagnosed with brain cancer in May, returned to his home in Washington Tuesday.
Though it is unclear whether Sen. Kennedy will go to his office on Capitol Hill, a spokesperson confirmed that the senator will continue working from his Washington home.
While in his home in Hyannis Port, the senator was working to lay groundwork for health care legislation for next year’s Congress. Sen. Kennedy has been on the phones and holding teleconferences with his staff and other members of the Senate, the spokesperson said, and would continue those activities while in Washington.
Sen. Kennedy plans to stay in Washington until the Thanksgiving holiday, when he will return to Cape Cod, the spokesperson said. Sen. Kennedy, who has served in the Senate for 46 years, is still planning on making his official return to the Senate in January when the first session of the 111th Congress convenes.
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Local Presidential Campaign Donations Similar to 2004
ZIP CODES
The New Bedford Standard-Times
Courtney Hime
Boston University Washington News Service
October 27, 2008
WASHINGTON – New Bedford area contributions of $200 or more to presidential candidates have amounted to only slightly more in 2008 than they did in 2004.
In 2004, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, Sen. John Kerry and President George Bush received a combined $177,365 in contributions from the area. This year, New Bedford area residents gave Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain a total of $185,157 – an increase over four years ago of $7,792.
While the difference in total contributions may be minimal, the division between the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates has changed significantly. In 2004, President Bush received about $35,775 from local residents. Four years later, Sen. McCain received $64,454 through Oct. 15, an increase of nearly $30,000. This increase could indicate a shift in donation patterns for the area.
Freetown residents, for example, contributed more than $12,000 to Sen. Kerry, but in this election cycle have donated $3,301 to Sen. McCain and none to Sen. Obama. Similarly, Westporters gave only $650 to President Bush in 2004 but contributed more than $9,000 to Sen. McCain.
Most jurisdictions that gave primarily to Sen. Kerry in 2004 continued to donate to Sen. Obama, but there have been a few exceptions. Much like Freetown, North Dartmouth residents, for example, donated more than $12,000 to Sen. Kerry but only $700 to Sen. Obama through Oct. 15.
Kenneth Manning, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, said it was important to realize that patterns of campaign contributions could easily be skewed by one large donation.
“All it takes is one fat-cat business associate, a close buddy or somebody to write a check for two, three, four thousand dollars to skew this data in one small town,” he said.
Barney Keller, spokesman for the Massachusetts Republican Party, said he believes Sen. McCain’s political agenda and message are responsible for the increase in donations from area residents.
“John McCain has a history of reaching across the aisle to get things done,” Keller said via e-mail. “As a ‘maverick,’ he appeals to Republicans, Democrats and independents, which makes him well-suited to receive a lot of support of Massachusetts.”
Doug Roscoe, another UMass Dartmouth political science professor, said President Bush’s lack of primary competition also could have been a factor in his low contribution numbers.
“People didn’t feel like they had to come out and support George Bush in the primaries,” Roscoe said, “whereas John McCain fought a battle.”
Unlike Sen. McCain’s, Sen. Obama’s area-wide contributions have not surpassed what Sen. Kerry raised in 2004. As of the most recent presidential finance filing, Sen. Obama was trailing Sen. Kerry’s local numbers by about $20,000. However, Sen. Obama is not a hometown senator – a key factor, Manning said.
“The numbers are going to be somewhat skewed here because you’ve got a home state guy,” Manning said of Sen. Kerry. “It basically means that 2004 was somewhat of an outlier, not a typical election.”
Roscoe said he agreed, and added that Sen. Obama’s competitive primary race probably held down his contributions. In 2004, he said, every Democrat in Massachusetts was donating to Sen. Kerry, whereas this year, donations were spread between other Democratic candidates.
“There’s no clear home team,” Roscoe said, “so that’s obviously going to shift things a little.”
Some shifts have also occurred in the way money has been raised throughout Sen. Obama’s campaign.
“Clearly he raises significant sums from wealthy interests, but the bulk of money is coming from everyday folks, sending him $50, $100, $150,” Manning said.
According to the Federal Election Commission, Sen. Obama has raised $639 million for his campaign – with 90 percent contributed by individual donors. More than half of the individual contributions – $280 million – are coming in donations of less than $200, which don’t have to be reported to the commission.
The Center for Responsive Politics, which analyzes politics and money, does not factor donations of less than $200 into its statistics. Manning said factoring in the smaller donations for both Sens. Kerry and Obama would show that, even locally, Sen. Obama was “blowing Kerry away in terms of fund raising.”
In the final stages of the campaign, funds have kept flowing toward Sen. Obama. Since Aug. 31, Sen. McCain has received two donations of more than $200 from the New Bedford area totaling $701. Sen. Obama has received 44 large donations from the area, totaling more than $24,000.
That’s because Sen. McCain, by agreeing to accept public financing for the general election, has been barred from accepting individual donations since he accepted his party’s nomination on Sept. 4. Sen. Obama has chosen not to accept public financing.
Manning credited Sen. Obama’s overall campaign strategy for his financial successes.
“At the end of the day,” he said. “I think what’s driving Obama’s dollar figures is the passion that is underlying his candidacy.”
Nationally, Sen. Obama has surpassed Sen. McCain’s total campaign funds by more than $100 million. Even locally he has received nearly double the donations that his Republican counterpart has, continuing the area’s pattern of giving to Democratic candidates.
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Obama Leads McCain in Local Fundraising
WorcesterFEC
Worcester Telegram and Gazette
Rachel Kolokoff
Boston University Washington News Service
October 24, 2008
WASHINGTON – Democrat Barack Obama has raised far more money in Massachusetts than Republican John McCain, a trend also seen in campaign contributions in seven Central Massachusetts cities.
Through September, 335 residents of Worcester, Fitchburg, Leominster, Auburn, Shrewsbury, and Westborough made 1,173 contributions of $200 or more to Mr. Obama totaling $192,749. That amount is almost three times the $72,809 that 101 McCain supporters in those cities gave in 193 contributions of $200 or more in that same time period, according to campaign filings with the Federal Election Commission.
In Southbridge, alone among the seven cities, Mr. McCain out-raised Mr. Obama, collecting $7,650 from three donors to Mr. Obama’s $1,259 from five donors.
Throughout the state, Mr. Obama received $12.1 million in campaign contributions through August, more than triple Mr. McCain’s $3.6 million in receipts.
Beginning on Sept. 4, when he accepted his party’s nomination, Mr. McCain, who had agreed to accept $84.1 million in public financing of his campaign, could no longer receive private donations for his campaign; Mr. Obama, who opted out of the public system, continued to accept private contributions.
Thus, in September alone, Mr. Obama raised $58,054 to Mr. McCain’s $4,105 in the seven Central Massachusetts cities.
In Worcester 173 residents contributed 614 times to Mr. Obama’s campaign, raising $85,389 through September, almost half the total Democratic dollars raised by all seven cities.
“I truly believe in him and his platform,” said lifetime Worcester resident Rosemary Leary, who gave $1,250. “It’s time for a change.”
Ms. Leary, 59, said she often received e-mail messages from Mr. Obama’s campaign and felt it was urgent to contribute money and help ensure his election. As president, she said, Mr. Obama would help end the war in Iraq.
“I lived through Vietnam and I can’t do it again,” Ms. Leary said. “We've already lost thousands of young people, part of a future generation.”
Not all Worcester residents agree with Ms. Leary: 40 of them contributed 74 times to Mr. McCain's campaign for a total of $32,677 as of the end of September, according to the campaign’s filings.
Another lifetime Worcester resident, Wallace Myers, 78, contributed seven times for a total of $222, to Mr. McCain’s campaign. Mr. Myers said he received at least three solicitations for every contribution he made.
Mr. Myers, who described himself as moderate and informed about politics, said he thinks Mr. McCain is the better presidential candidate because Mr. Obama is too liberal.
“The Democrat is an ultra leftist, and I feel he would totally destroy the country, not that it isn’t in pretty bad shape as it is,” Mr. Myers said. “I wouldn’t trust him as far as I can throw him.”
Like Mr. Myers, Thomas Ardinger, who has lived in Leominster for 38 years, said he trusts Mr. McCain more than Mr. Obama when it comes to running the nation. Mr. Ardinger, who donated $500 to Mr. McCain, is one of 7 people in Leominster who contributed a total $3,865 to Mr. McCain.
“While the economy is important, the general position of character is something I look for in a presidential candidate,” Mr. Ardinger said. “I look for someone I can trust.”
Mr. Obama raised more than twice that amount in 47 contributions from 15 contributors in Leominster.
College of the Holy Cross professor David Schaefer said he is not surprised that Mr. Obama received more money than Mr. McCain in six of the seven cities because Republicans are a minority among Massachusetts residents.
“Like the state as a whole, though less so than Boston and its suburbs, Central Massachusetts leans Democratic,” Mr. Schaefer said.
In 2004, all seven of these Central Massachusetts cities, including Southbridge, voted for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John F. Kerry. Even so, Southbridge residents contributed more money to President George W. Bush than to Mr. Kerry.
Keith Stone, a 46-year-old Fitchburg resident who retired last year, contributed 14 times to Mr. Obama’s campaign, giving a total of $640. Mr. Stone said Mr. Obama should be president because he will change current political policies.
“To have John McCain admit on TV that he voted 90 percent of the time with the president showed that voting for him is like asking for another four years of the same policies,” Mr. Stone said.
Mr. Stone said residents of Fitchburg, whose mayor may turn off certain streetlights to help manage the city budget, cannot afford four more years like recent ones. He and 18 other Fitchburg residents contributed $9,691 through Sept. 30 to Mr. Obama through 121 contributions, more than 12 times the amount given to Mr. McCain in the same period in that city.
But lifetime Democrats are not the only people supporting Obama. Professor Frank Minasian, chairman of Worcester State College’s Political Science Department, said some traditionally Republican areas in Massachusetts are becoming more Democratic.
Jonathan Carey, a 34-year Auburn resident who voted for Mr. Bush in 2004, said Mr. Obama will be the first Democrat he has ever voted for.
“I think the final straw for me with John McCain was when he picked Sara Palin, who I just don't think is qualified to take over this country,” Mr. Carey said. “It frightened me, and it should frighten everybody.”
Because he feels so strongly that Mr. Obama should be president, Mr. Carey has donated $189, his first ever political contribution, to Mr. Obama’s campaign, he said.
Mr. Carey also said he supports Mr. Obama because his policies will help end the war in Iraq and help the middle and lower classes financially.
“My wife and I adopted three little girls with special needs who are now teenagers,” Mr. Carey said. “A lot of the policies the Democrats are proposing are things that will help my family and my children, which is key to us.”
While Mr. Carey and 51 other Auburn residents contributed $4,616 to Mr. Obama, 6 Auburn residents contributed $3,711, or about 20 percent less, to Mr. McCain.
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Conn. Election Web Site Ranks Near the Bottom
WEBSITES
Norwalk Hour
Jordan Zappala
Boston University Washington News Service
10/23/08
WASHINGTON –Connecticut’s official election Web site received a failing grade in a study released this week by the non-partisan research group the Pew Center on the States.
With a score of 37 out of 100 points, the site maintained by the Secretary of State’s office ranked 48th out of all 50 states and the District of Columbia in terms of searchability, usability and helpfulness, according to the Pew Center’s research.
The study focused on the Web site’s ability to answer the most common user questions, such as whether they are registered to vote, the location of polling places and what candidates or issues are on the ballot. Connecticut’s site – which is found under the “Elections & Voting” tab of www.ct.gov/sots – provides no easy answers, if any, to these top questions, according to Pew.
In this new hi-tech era, both Republican and Democratic campaigns have raised large sums of money, recruited volunteers and communicated with supporters through social networking sites, e-mail and text messages. Sen. Hillary Clinton even announced her presidential candidacy on the web. As of June, 40 percent of all adults turned to the Web for campaign information, according to Pew researchers.
“With an increasing number of Internet users, it is paramount that state elections Web sites meet the needs and expectations of current and prospective voters by providing useful and usable elections Web sites,” the Pew study said. “This is no longer a nice thing to do, but a must-do to enable citizens to exercise their right to vote.”
Connecticut, in particular, warrants an above-average election Web site, according to data compiled by Web measurement firm Compete. Connecticut ranked second in a national survey of online political activity, with 11.2 percent of residents – or 1 in 9 – having visited a candidate’s Web site or top political blog in September.
In late September – after the Pew study was complete – a newly crafted election Web site was launched by Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz. The new, more user-friendly page provides most of the same information as the poorly rated original site, but still does not allow Connecticut’s more than 2 million registered voters to confirm that they are registered, where they can vote or which candidates will be on the ballot.
“Voter registration records are kept with the local registrar’s office, so we usually tell people to call and ask,” said Adam Joseph, deputy communications director for the Secretary of State. “And polling places are not online, because they can vary – municipal election locations may be different than presidential. We have a listing of candidates on the homepage, but to find more about their stance on things, they’d have to go somewhere else.”
While it may be possible to get all the necessary information elsewhere when it is not readily available on the official Web site, people often call their local offices or a national hotline to find answers to their questions. The Pew Center reported that these calls to state or county election offices can cost up to $100 each, depending on the staffer’s qualifications.
In contrast to Connecticut’s voter Web site and that of New Hampshire, which ranked the worst in the nation, Iowa had the best Web site in the survey, with a score of 77 out of 100 points. Iowa’s site received the highest score because the links to voters’ most critical questions were easy to locate, it came up first during Web searches, and a link to the site is featured prominently on the state’s homepage, according to the Pew report.
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Hodes Holds Big Money Advantage in 2nd Congressional District Race
FEC HODES
The Keene Sentinel
Joe Vines
Boston University Washington News Service
October 23, 2008
WASHINGTON− Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H., holds a significant fundraising advantage over Republican challenger Jennifer Horn as the campaign for the 2nd Congressional District House seat enters the final weeks.
According to data from the Federal Election Commission, Hodes, seeking a second term, enters the homestretch with $563,363 in his campaign treasury as of the Sept. 30 deadline for filing campaign finance reports with the FEC and bringing his fundraising total to a staggering $1.8 million.
That sum is more than 40 percent greater than the average for all House incumbents this year, according to opensecrets.org, a nonpartisan Web site that compiles campaign finance information.
Horn, a former radio talk-show host from Nashua who has largely financed her own campaign, reported $109,646 left in her coffers as of Sept. 30 after collecting $403,695 through that date. Horn personally loaned her campaign $214,844, according to the Federal Election Commission.
The majority of Hodes’ contributions have come from outside New Hampshire. His biggest contributors have been trial lawyers and labor unions. Horn’s biggest contributors have been the real estate industry and trial lawyers.
“The congressman has raised over $550,000 from inside New Hampshire,” said Mark Bergman, the Hodes campaign’s spokesman. “I think people in New Hampshire are responding to his message of standing up for people here.”
While most of Hodes’ money has come from outside the Granite State, he has had the help of a few local big-money donors, including grocery store magnates Richard and Jan Cohen of Keene, who each donated $4,600, the maximum combined amount for a primary and general election.
Horn received a $500 donation from former Rep. Charles F. Bass, who defeated Hodes handily in 2004 but lost to him in a rematch in 2006.
Horn has been hitting Hodes in recent weeks for accepting money from the securities and investment industry in an effort to tie Hodes, who sits on the House Financial Services and Oversight Committees, to the economic crisis.
“Paul Hodes saw the economic crisis brewing two years ago,” said David Chesley, Horn’s campaign manager. “He has taken $150,000 from those industries he is supposed to oversee and provided no oversight for.”
But Hodes aide Bergman said: “Those contributions have not affected his vote. If he were in the pocket of the financial services industry, he would not have voted against the bailout bill not once but twice…. To say that is disingenuous.”
Though Horn has hit Hodes for taking money from the financial services industry, she accepted a $1,000 donation from Amtrust group, a financial insurance company, and has collected $5,768 from the financial services and insurance industry overall, according to opensecrets.org.
Money from political action committees has also played a major role in the race. Horn received $10,000, the federal limit, from White Mountain PAC, the committee headed by Sen. Judd Gregg. Horn also received $11,000 from PACs supporting the automotive industry. Political action committees are organizations set up by public officials and private groups to raise money for political candidates.
Hodes has taken $778,826 from PACs, according to the Federal Election Commission, the majority of the money coming from business and labor PACs. Hodes received the federal maximum of $10,000 from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Horn has also received help from the National Republican Congressional Committee in recent weeks. The fundraising arm of the House Republicans spent $84,000 on a television advertisement for Horn in a last-ditch effort to flip the seat.
Recent polling by the New Hampshire Institute of Politics showed Hodes leading with 35 percent to Horn’s 18 percent, though 45 percent of respondents said they were undecided, a large number this late in the campaign.
“This is not a top-of-the ballot race.” Bergman said. “[Hodes] is going to have the resources down the stretch to communicate his message. We feel confident with where we stand in this race.”
Horn’s campaign is optimistic that she is going to be able to appeal to the undecided voters and close the gap. “Paul Hodes has been campaigning for six years, and it’s clear that a large number of individuals are not sold on Paul Hodes and looking for someone else,” Chesley said. “I am confident Jennifer Horn can win this campaign, and she will have all the resources she needs to win.”
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Catholic Voters See Economy As Their Top Concern
Catholic
New London Day
Dan Levy
Boston University Washington News Service
Oct. 23
WASHINGTON—There’s been a lot of talk about the women’s vote, the youth vote and the working-class vote in this election cycle.
But there’s also a Catholic vote, and it’s driven more by economic concerns than social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage, according to a panel of experts assembled Wednesday evening at the Catholic University of America.
“Tell me who wins the Catholic vote and I will tell you who will be the next president,” said panelist John White, a politics professor at the Washington-based institution.
In six of the last seven presidential elections, White said, Catholics have voted for the winner. Four years ago, 52 percent of Catholic voters supported Republican President George W. Bush.
Now, most are leaning toward Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama, according to surveys conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, a non-partisan research group.
Pew researcher Gregory Smith, who sat on the panel, said Catholics this year are most concerned about the same issues as the overall electorate: the economy, energy, education, the environment, health care and terrorism.
Each of these areas is more important to Catholic voters than so-called “moral values” issues such as abortion, according to the Pew findings.
“It looks as if abortion will be a relatively unimportant issue this election,” Smith said.
Less than a quarter of Catholic registered voters surveyed by Pew both oppose abortion and see it as a top political concern.
While church-going Catholics were twice as likely as non-church-going Catholics to say that abortion is important to them, even they ranked the issue as a low political priority.
In addition, fewer than one in five Catholic registered voters identified same-sex marriage as a key issue in the forthcoming election.
The survey dealt only with non-Hispanic white Catholic registered voters. Smith said Hispanic and non-white Catholics form an influential and growing voter bloc, but that focusing on non-Hispanic white Catholics allowed Pew researchers to “disentangle” religion from other factors such as race and ethnicity.
Smith said he found the survey’s results “striking given the great deal of media attention” to abortion as a mobilizing issue for Christian voters.
But William D’Antonio, a University of Connecticut emeritus professor who participated in the event, said support or opposition to abortion rights is more of a political issue than a religious one.
D’Antonio said Catholic members of Congress have voted along party lines on abortion rights since the 1980s, when President Ronald Reagan made opposition to abortion a cornerstone of the Republican Party.
In 1979, Catholic Republican senators voted in favor of abortion rights 20 per cent of the time, while Catholic Democratic senators did so 45 per cent of the time, according to D’Antonio’s research.
By 2005, he said, Democratic Catholics in the Senate were voting “pro-choice” almost 90 percent of the time; their Republican counterparts were almost never doing so.
“There is a Catholic vote,” D’Antonio said, “but it’s trumped by party ideology.”
In Connecticut, political allegiances have long outstripped religious beliefs, D’Antonio said after the university event. Although roughly 32 percent of Connecticut residents self-identify as Catholic, according to a 2001 City University of New York study, the state has a long history of voting for pro-abortion-rights Democrats for Congress and the White House.
An influential Connecticut Catholic, the late Democratic Party chairman John Bailey, was a key supporter of John F. Kennedy, the country’s first Catholic president.
During his election campaign, Kennedy famously promised voters that, as president, he wouldn’t take his marching orders from Rome.
In politics, at least, D’Antonio said Connecticut Catholics largely agree with Kennedy.
“They haven’t been listening to their bishops for years,” D’Antonio said.
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Maine’s 1st District Candidate Pingree Raised Most Money
FEC Maine House
Bangor Daily News
Guanlei Ren
Boston University Washington News Service
October 22, 2008
WASHINGTON — Democrat Chellie Pingree raised $141,966 more than Republican Charlie Summers in Maine’s 1st District House race in the quarter ending Sept. 30, bringing her fundraising total for the campaign to $1,977,732, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.
The Pingree campaign raised $382,947 from July to September and had $358,628 to spend as of Sept. 30. Summers raised $240,981 during the third quarter, bringing his total receipts to $530,353, with $137,382 cash on hand.
The two are competing for the House seat Democratic Rep. Tom Allen is leaving to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins next month.
Much of Pingree’s money was raised before the June 10 Democratic primary. According to filings with the commission, Pingree, who won the six-way primary race with 44 percent of the vote, raised $1.59 million and spent $1.4 million as of June 30.
Adam Cote, who came in second in the Democratic primary with 28 percent of the vote, raised $660,471 as of June 30, the second-highest amount raised for the primary.
Pingree faced a number of strong opponents in the primary, said Mark Brewer, assistant professor of political science at the University of Maine. “And running a competitive race in that primary campaign certainly was going to cost money,” Brewer said. “So I think it was certainly appropriate to raise that much.”
The biggest expense has been television advertising, said Willy Ritch, the Pingree campaign spokesperson. “It’s expensive to buy TV time,” he said.
Ritch said that nearly one-third of the third-quarter donations came from online contributions and more than 700 persons were first-time contributors. Altogether nearly 5,000 people contributed to the campaign, 77 percent of whom gave less than $200, Ritch said. The names of persons who contribute less than $200 are not required to be reported in the filings with the election commission.
“Chellie continues to build momentum, and she has a tremendous amount of grassroots support,” Ritch said in a statement. “Every day new supporters come to the campaign.”
Summers’ campaign manager, Chris Averill, said the majority of their third-quarter contributors were new to the campaign.
“Voters aren’t going to vote on how much each campaign has raised,” Averill said. “They are going to vote on issues that matter to them and messages that they hear from each campaign and each candidate about solutions they have to deal with our problems that we have in America and challenges we face.”
Pingree was first elected in 1992 to the Maine Senate and became Maine’s second female Senate majority leader in 1996. In 2002 she ran for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Republican Susan Collins and lost by 16 percentage points. Pingree also served as president and CEO of Common Cause, a nonpartisan citizens’ lobbying group based in Washington.
Pingree’s name recognition and long history in Maine politics helps her to raise money, Brewer said. Pingree also is more successful at raising money because she is recognized as the front runner, Brewer said. And her work in Washington also built connections with out-of-state donors, he said.
According to OpenSecrets.org, a nonpartisan Web site that analyzes money and elections, Pingree has raised 65 percent of her campaign funds outside of Maine.
One of the out-of-state contributors is Colorado resident Susan Schutz, founder of Blue Mountain Arts, a company that produces greeting cards, who contributed $2,300, according to filings with the commission. Schutz has donated more than $200,000 in the last 10 years to the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates across the country, including her son Jared Polis, the Democratic candidate for Congress in Colorado’s 2nd District.
According to the filings with the commission, about 91 percent of Pingree’s campaign fund came from individual contributions and eight percent were from political action committee contributions, $1,805,421 and $165,258 respectively.
Among 21 committees that contributed $5,000—the maximum legal contribution per calendar year—19 are located in Washington, such as the Human Rights Campaign PAC and Women’s Political Committee.
“Money is important in terms of being able to wage a credible campaign,” Brewer said. “But I would say money doesn’t generally determine outcomes.”
In the 2nd District, Democrat Rep. Michael Michaud raised $118,137 during the most recent three-month period, according to filings with the commission. He has raised a total of $748,293 and had $455,191 cash to spend as of Sept. 30.
Republican John Frary reported third-quarter fundraising of $76,288, bringing his total to $221,939, with $15,962 cash on hand. All but $13,227 that the campaign has raised comes from the candidate himself.
“The money I spent comes almost entirely from my own savings,” Frary said. “I didn't wish to have any special interest PAC or union contributions.”
He said his money was spent almost entirely on advertisements in local newspapers throughout the district and he would keep spending on advertisements.
“My plan … is to go wherever I'm invited to address a crowd of people,” Frary said.
Michaud campaign manager Greg Olson said: “It’s certainly an interesting political environment. People are very concerned about the economy. We are going to campaign hard for the next several weeks, meeting the voters and asking them to send Michaud back to Congress.”
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Frank, Kerry Receive Perfect Marks in Environmental Issues
LCV RANKINGS
The New Bedford Standard-Times
Courtney Hime
Boston University Washington News Service
October 22, 2008
Frank, Kerry receive perfect marks in environmental issues
WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Barney Frank and U.S. Sen. John Kerry received perfect scores in the League of Conservation Voters annual congressional ranking for 2008.
The 2008 National Environmental Scorecard, released Oct. 17, provides a record of how members of Congress vote on key environmental bills. The League of Conservation Voters is a non- partisan organization that supports pro-environmental candidates.
This year, the organization identified 11 Senate and 13 House bills to use in tabulating the scorecard. Both Sen. Kerry and Rep. Frank voted with the league’s position on all of the bills. Last year Sen. Kerry scored 93 and Rep. Frank received 80.
All but one of the 10 House members from Massachusetts received a perfect score; Rep. William Delahunt (D-10th) received an 85 percent.
Rep. Frank said he was “very pleased” with the rating he received.
“I’m very proud of it and I think it shows we have a mutual understanding in the importance of conservation,” he said.
Josh McNeil, a spokesman for the League of Conservation Voters, said Rep Frank’s lifetime voting record of 92 percent was “one of the best in Congress.”
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy scored 36 percent, reflecting his absence for several environmental votes. In its tabulation of scores, the league counts an absent vote as a negative vote.
McNeil was quick to defend Sen. Kennedy’s score, pointing to his lifetime score of 82 percent as evidence of his support of environmental issues.
“He’s been a champion on our issues for a long, long time,” he said.
Sen. Kerry, who has a lifetime score of 96 percent, said in a press release last week that he was proud to receive his rating from the League of Conservation Voters and wanted to commend the league’s environmental efforts.
“LCV should be applauded for its work championing the protection of our environment,” he said. “Over the years we have worked together to stop drilling in the Arctic refuge, increase fuel efficiency of cars and trucks and reduce carbon emissions from power plants.”
McNeil said Massachusetts members of Congress have consistently received high marks on the scorecard.
“The entire Massachusetts delegation really leads the way on energy and environmental issues,” McNeil said.
Barney Keller, spokesman for the Massachusetts Republican Party, said the scores released by the League of Conservation Voters are not surprising because of the organizations’ public endorsement of Barack Obama for president.
“They’re running ads against John McCain,” he said. “For them to give 100 percent rating to another Democrat doesn’t really matter.”
In addition to its endorsement of several Democratic candidates, the League of Conservation Voters has thrown its support behind some Republican candidates. Of the nine senatorial candidates endorsed, one is Republican; of the 46 endorsed House candidates, 12 are Republicans.
The issues covered in the bills brought before the House and Senate range from clean energy tax credits to public land protection and subsidy reforms in the farm bill. In both chambers, the issue of offshore drilling was often a point of contention for several members of Congress.
In the House, Rep. Frank helped to defeat motions to allow offshore drilling. Similarly, Sen. Kerry voted against increasing offshore drilling areas. Despite both of their efforts, Congress allowed the moratorium on offshore drilling to expire at the end of September.
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