Campaign finances
By Eric Ostermeier on July 22, 2009
A Smart Politics analysis of FEC data for the 2nd Quarter of 2009 finds 6th District Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann raised more individual itemized contributions in the home districts of two of her fellow DFL colleagues, and nearly as much money in the home districts of two other DFLers. Representative...
By Eric Ostermeier on July 21, 2009
In April 2009, Smart Politics reported on Keith Ellison's unusual campaign fundraising numbers that found the 2-term DFL Congressman raising the vast majority of his large donor individual contributions from out of state. That reporting period was not an aberration. The new Federal Election Commission (FEC) data for the second...
By Eric Ostermeier on July 20, 2009
Of the many benefits that come with being a Committee Chairman and one of the longest serving members in the U.S. House, is a certain national renown that enables a U.S. Representative to more easily raise campaign funds from out of state. Eighteen-term DFLer Jim Oberstar (MN-08) has perfected...
By Eric Ostermeier on July 17, 2009
Last Spring, Smart Politics explained how while the headline coming from the Federal Elections Commission Q1 2009 reports on the fundraising by Minnesota's U.S. House delegation was that Republican Michele Bachmann outraised all of her Gopher State colleagues by nearly $100,000, the story beneath the headline was that Bachmann was...
By Eric Ostermeier on April 26, 2009
Last Friday, Congressman Keith Ellison's communications director Rick Jauert responded to recent data unearthed and analzyed by Smart Politics that Ellison was receiving an unusual amount of itemized individual contributions from out-of-state, both in Q1 2009 (when he had the highest percentage of such contributions among Minnesota's delegation), and ever...
By Eric Ostermeier on April 23, 2009
The FEC's Q1 2009 campaign finance data reveals several interesting facts about how Minnesota's U.S. Representatives fund their campaigns. Earlier in the week, Smart Politics documented that GOP Representative Michele Bachmann received the largest percentage of contributions from individuals and small donors among the state's U.S. House delegation, and...
By Eric Ostermeier on April 21, 2009
Heads turned last week upon the release of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's impressive Q1 2009 fundraising data - outpacing all her Gopher State colleagues by nearly $100,000. Eyes rolled on some liberal blogs yesterday after Smart Politics characterized Representative Bachmann's fundraising efforts as a sign of her success at tapping into...
By Eric Ostermeier on April 20, 2009
When the Federal Election Commission (FEC) released its Q1 2009 campaign fundraising data at the end of last week, the Minnesota media largely focused on how Michele Bachmann lead the Minnesota U.S. House delegation in contributions received. But reports on Representative Bachmann's fundraising success, and growing national profile, missed the...
By Eric Ostermeier on March 15, 2009
Ethical questions have been raised in recent days surrounding the reporting by news organizations and bloggers on the leaked Norm Coleman U.S. Senate campaign pledges and contributions. Smart Politics has also received its fair share of both criticism and praise for its analysis of the compromised data, perhaps, one might...
By Eric Ostermeier on March 13, 2009
The many bits of information made available from the leak of the Norm Coleman U.S. Senate campaign donor database, posted at Wikileaks on Wednesday, gives the public a glimpse into what type of people supported the Republican incumbent's candidacy. On Thursday, Smart Politics broke down the donor data by state;...
By Eric Ostermeier on March 12, 2009
The news for Norm Coleman just keeps getting worse. Fresh off his recent attempt to sell to the public (and the three-judge panel hearing his recount challenge) that the State of Minnesota should hold a new election, the private information of nearly 5,000 donors to his political campaign was...
