Tag: Independent Expenditures

Studious readers of the Swing State Project know that we keep daily tabs on House race independent expenditures in our IE tracker. But now that election season truly is in full swing, we’ll also be rounding up the money spent in the last seven days by the party committees and independent groups each Sunday night on the front page.

NARPAC is the National Association of Realtors’ political arm. More often than not, they support Republicans, but on occasion they spend cash to defend a Democratic incumbent (such as Melissa Bean in 2006). Looks like Paul Kanjorski is getting the Bean treatment this year.

While the NRCC can’t afford to engage in any real spending just yet, the DCCC is using their head start to ramp up the negatives of Republican candidates in key open seat races — a “kill ’em in the crib” approach, if you will.

For more specific details, please consult SSP’s Independent Expenditure tracker.

Longtime readers of the Swing State Project are well aware that I like to keep close tabs on party committee spending, especially for those in House races. As the DCCC has begun to crank its independent expenditure shop into high gear in recent weeks, I had been toying with the idea of assembling some kind of stand-alone “tracker” of all third-party independent expenditures for House races. Egged on by Populista, I’ve finally put one together.

You can check it out here. The idea is to track “blue money” and “red money” for each contested district, bundling DCCC and NRCC expenditures with cash spent by their respective allies. As far as the visual presentation goes, it may still be a bit of a work in progress, but all the information is there.

Now, there are a few caveats: 527 electioneering expenditures, like those from Freedom’s Crotch Watch, are not filed in the same clear-cut manner as standard IEs, so we won’t be including such numbers in our tracker. (Indeed, Freedom’s Watch has been known to not file any reports at all sometimes.) I’m also not including very minor expenditures (e.g. van rentals, field supplies, or lunch for volunteers) by third parties, as the focus here is mostly on paid media campaigns. You also won’t see any expenditures made to influence primary elections, which means that you won’t see any numbers from the likes of the Club For Growth yet; we’re strictly dealing with the general election here.

So, without further ado, here it is: SSP’s House Race Independent Expenditure Tracker. Bookmark it and check it often, because I’ll be updating it daily. It will also be available as a link in the right-hand sidebar.

The latest independent expenditures from the DCCC, as compiled by SSP (cycle-to-date expenditures in parens):

• AK-AL: $18,100 and another $18,100 on direct mail against Don Young and Sean Parnell (CTD: $54,300)
• IL-11: $39,300 on a media buy, $16,000 on direct mail, and $1300 on phone banking in support of Debbie Halvorson (CTD: $267,000)
• NJ-03: $1,900 on phone banking in support of John Adler (CTD: $1,900)
• NJ-07: $13,100 on direct mail and $1,300 on phone banking in support Linda Stender (CTD: $66,900)
• OH-15: $15,700 on direct mail and $800 on phone banking in support of Mary Jo Kilroy (CTD: $69,400)
• OH-16: $12,500 on direct mail and $900 on phone banking in support of John Boccieri (CTD: $44,900)
• TX-22: $43,800 on a media buy and $24,400 on direct mail in support of Nick Lampson (CTD: $189,500)
• VA-11: $1300 on phone banking, $13,200 on direct mail, and $200 on web media in support of Gerry Connolly (CTD: $13,400)

And for the NRCC:

• CA-08: $21,700 on a media buy against Nancy Pelosi

If you’re scratching your head and wondering why the NRCC is sinking cash against Pelosi, PolitickerCA explains that the buy was made on nationwide cable (FOX, of course) and takes aim at Pelosi and other Democrats on the energy crisis. So, there you go.

And finally, from the Club For Growth:

• AK-AL: $33,600 on radio ads against Don Young

Last Updated: November 2, 2008 at 10:00 PM

Key:

• AANSPAC: American Association of Neurological Surgeons PAC
• AAOS: American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons PAC
• AFRA: Alliance for Retired Americans Political Action Fund
• AFSCME: American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
• AGCAPAC: Associated General Contractors of America PAC
• AHAPAC: American Hospital Association
• AMAPAC: American Medical Association PAC
• ASAPAC: America Society of Anesthesiologists PAC
• BAPAC: Blue America PAC
• CFG: Club for Growth
• CSII: Common Sense Issues, Inc.
• CULAC: Credit Union National Association PAC
• DCCC: Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
• DWAF: Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund
• EFPAC: Eagle Forum PAC
• EMILY: EMILY’s List
• Grigsby: Leonard Lane Grigsby
• HSLF: Humane Society Legislative Fund
• IDDP: Idaho Democratic Party
• IDRP: Idaho Republican Party
• LCV: League of Conservation Voters
• LFR: Let Freedom Ring
• Minutemen: Minutemen PAC
• MIRP: Michigan Republican Party
• NARPAC: National Association of Realtors PAC
• NEDSCC: Nebraska Democratic State Central Committee
• NEMPAC: National Emergency Medicine PAC
• NRA: National Rifle Assocation
• NRCC: National Republican Congressional Committee
• NRLPAC: National Right to Life PAC
• NERP: Nebraska Republican Party
• NWFAF: National Wildlife Federation Action Fund
• OB-GYNS: OB-GYNS for Women’s Health PAC
• OPHTHPAC: American Academy of Ophthalmology PAC
• OHRP: Ohio Republican Party
• PP: Planned Parenthood
• RCCNM: Republican Campaign Committee of New Mexico
• RMSP: Republican Main Street Partnership
• MNRP: Minnesota Republican Party
• Safari: Safari Club
• SEIU: Service Employees International Union
• TAPAC: Team America PAC
• TISBPAC: Trust in Small Business PAC
• TNDP: Tennessee Democratic Party
• VFW: Veterans of Foreign Wars PAC
• WFP: New York State Committee of the Working Families Party

The DCCC’s IE shop is really kicking into gear, leaving the tight-budgeted NRCC in the dust. Here’s a round-up of the DCCC’s most recent independent expenditures, as compiled by SSP:

• OH-15: $1,350 on phonebanking and $15,700 on direct mail in support of Mary Jo Kilroy
• TX-22: $24,400 on direct mail in support of Nick Lampson
• IL-11: $20,450 on direct mail in support of Debbie Halvorson
• NJ-07: $13,100 on direct mail in support of Linda Stender
• OH-16: $12,500 on direct mail in support of John Boccieri
• PA-11: $80,000 on a media buy in support of Paul Kanjorski
• VA-11: $1,240 on phonebanking in support of Gerry Connolly
• AK-AL: $18,100 on direct mail against Don Young and Sean Parnell

I’ve seen a lot of people on Team Blue dismiss Lou Barletta’s chances in PA-11, but the fact that the DCCC feels nervous enough to continue to bail out Kanjorski’s ass (spending $260K to date) is a disturbing sign.

Because everyone loves to read about direct mail, here’s a round-up of the DCCC’s most recent expenditures in the past 24 hours:

• IL-11: $39,000 on a media buy, $21,000 on direct mail, and $2000 on phonebanking in support of Debbie Halvorson
• TX-22: $44,000 on a media buy in support of Nick Lampson (Update: Video here.)
• NJ-07: $13,000 on direct mail in support of Linda Stender

To tally all that up for you, the DCCC has so far spent $149K in IL-11, $39K in NJ-07, and $97K in TX-22.

On the Senate side of things, the SEIU has ponied up some serious dough in New Hampshire ($600K) and Oregon ($500K) for a pair of ads hitting John Sununu and Gordon Smith:

(I accidently mis-filed this one. – promoted by James L.)

Today brings our next and final installment in our round-up of 2006 House race expenditures (see here, here, and here for the other entries). Sorry for the lag between entries–I had a busier week than I expected (to make up for it, today’s diary will feature glorious color).

Today, we’ll look at two areas: competitive open seats and the handful of races where Democratic incumbents were on the defensive.

As usual, the “Spent” column indicates candidate expenditures, and “Other IEs” includes all independent expenditures made by PACs who filed with the FEC, but not 527 activity. The column on the far right, labeled “MoV”, indicates the current members’ margin of victory. In most cases I used Secretary of State numbers, but in a few races I relied upon CNN. All numbers were subject to rounding.

First, the open seats:

District	Candidate	Spent	NRCC IEs	Other IEs	Candidate	Spent	DCCC IEs	Other IEs	MoV
AZ-08	Graf	$1.32M	$108k	$178k	Giffords	$2.4M	$653k	$116k	D+12
CO-05	Lamborn	$884k	$149k	$33k	Fawcett	$631k	(none)	(none)	R+19
CO-07	O’Donnell	$2.75M	$556k	$104k	Perlmutter	$2.84M	$2.01M	$39k	D+13
FL-13	Buchanan	$8.06M	$94k	$12k	Jennings	$2.72M	(none)	$240k	R+0
FL-16	Negron	$760k	$1.67M	$11k	Mahoney	$2.46M	$429k	$6k	D+2
ID-01	Sali	$1.04M	$610k	$534k	Grant	$704k	(none)	$40k	R+5
IL-06	Roskam	$3.26M	$3.36M	$11k	Duckworth	$4.46M	$3.17M	$580k	R+3
IL-17	Zinga	$406k	(none)	$25k	Hare	$789k	(none)	$161k	D+14
IA-01	Whalen	$2.27M	$2.44M	$124k	Braley	$2.23M	$1.90M	$50k	D+12
MN-06	Bachmann	$2.46M	$2.48M	$65k	Wetterling	$4.23M	$1.15M	$646k	R+8
NE-03	Smith	$1.22M	$97k	$111k	Kleeb	$966k	$138k	$80k	R+10
NV-02	Heller	$1.6M	$482k	(none)	Derby	$1.55M	$416k	$142k	R+6
NY-24	Meier	$1.55M	$2.25M	$12k	Arcuri	$2.14M	$1.92M	$54k	D+9
OH-06	Blasdel	$1.07M	$664k	(none)	Wilson	$1.67M	$608k	(none)	D+24
OH-18	Padgett	$845k	$3.4M	$36k	Space	$1.55M	$2.48M	$4k	D+24
TX-22	Snelly Gibbr	$910k	$1.68M	$11k	Lampson	$3.49M	$127k	$2k	D+10
VT-AL	Rainville	$1.12M	$720k	(none)	Welch	$1.7M	$424k	(none)	D+8
WI-08	Gard	$2.85M	$1.12M	$142k	Kagen	$3.14M	$1.22M	$336k	D+2
Total		$34.4M	$15.3M	$1.5M		$39.7M	$16.6M	$2.5M

One thing to note here is that when tallying IE expenditures, I did not include expenditures by PACs against candidates who did not make it through the primary (e.g. the money that the Club For Growth spent against Dean Heller and for Sharon Angle in the NV-02 GOP primary). It’s noteworthy to highlight that GOP-allied PACs were more likely to show up in these open seat races than they were in races where Republican incumbents were on the defensive, but Democratic allies still outspent them by a 5-3 ratio. Of these expenditures, the most heartwarming perhaps is the $3.4 million that the NRCC spent against Zack (“Lost In”) Space, only to see the former Dover Law Director clean up by a whopping 24 points. More curiously, though, was the decision by both committees to largely stay out of the ultra-competitive FL-13 race. I could understand the NRCC holding back, when their candidate had bottomless pockets, but I’m not sure what the DCCC’s strategy was here.

Finally, we have the shortlist of “competitive” Democratic races. A few of these were legitimately competitive, while some represent nothing more than wishful thinking from national Republicans earlier on in the election cycle. Do you remember how badly the NRCC and the White House wanted to spook John Spratt (SC-05) in 2005? With Spratt’s 14-point victory and Republicans retreating from the battlefield early, you have to wonder if anyone significant will have the fortitude to try again in 2008.

District	Candidate	Spent	NRCC IEs	Other IEs	Incumbent	Spent	DCCC IEs	Other IEs	MoV
CO-03	Tipton	$822k	(none)	$5k	Salazar	$2M	$29k	(none)	D+25
GA-08	Collins	$1.97M	$672k	(none)	Marshall	$1.84M	$210k	(none)	D+2
GA-12	Burns	$2.06M	$308k	$20k	Barrow	$2.2M	$813k	$13k	D+0
IA-03	Lamberti	$1.99M	$1.02M	$11k	Boswell	$2M	$885k	$33k	D+5
IL-08	McSweeney	$5.01M	$2.37M	$82k	Bean	$4.18M	$1.28M	$482k	D+7
IN-07	Dickerson	$62k	(none)	$4k	Carson	$591k	$69k	(none)	D+8
LA-03	Romero	$1.92M	$24k	(none)	Melancon	$2.46M	$53k	(none)	D+15
OR-05	Erickson	$1.80M	$8k	(none)	Hooley	$1.81M	$428k	$6k	D+11
SC-05	Norman	$1.34M	$24k	$12k	Spratt	$2.56M	(none)	(none)	D+14
TX-17	Taylor	$2.34M	$30k	$28k	Edwards	$3.06M	$204k	$20k	D+18
Total		$19.3M	$4.4M	$0.16M		$22.7M	$3.9M	$0.55M

On Tuesday, we looked at the biggest non-party independent expenditures of 2006 in House races, and yesterday, we looked at expenditures of all kinds in 22 of the 23 races where Democratic challengers beat House Republican incumbents. Let’s pick up where we left off and take a look at the heartbreakers of 2006–34 competitive races where the Democratic candidate fell short of toppling an incumbent.

How do we define “competitive”? Well, in this study, I used a compromise of a number of metrics: races where either party committee made significant expenditures, races where the incumbent had a margin of victory under 15%, races with significant (usually $1M+) challenger expenditures, and races with significant independent expenditures. In most of these cases, there is significant overlap between those guidelines of “competitiveness”.

As usual, the “Spent” column indicates candidate expenditures, and “Other IEs” includes all independent expenditures made by PACs who filed with the FEC, but not 527 activity. I have also added a column on the far right indicating the incumbents’ margin of victory. In most cases I used Secretary of State numbers, but in a few races I relied upon CNN. All numbers were subject to rounding.

District	Candidate	Spent	DCCC IEs	Other IEs	Incumbent	Spent	NRCC IEs	Other IEs	Victory Margin
AZ-01	Simon	$1.5M	(none)	$128k	Renzi	$2.22M	$24k	$21k	R+8
CA-04	Brown	$1.65M	(none)	$53k	Doolittle	$2.35M	$356k	$10k	R+3
CO-04	Paccione	$1.93M	$348k	$237k	Musgrave	$3.18M	$1.81M	$16k	R+2
CT-04	Farrell	$2.94M	$1.64M	$183k	Shays	$3.72M	$1.66M	$2k	R+3
FL-08	Stuart	$992k	(none)	$5k	Keller	$1.66M	(none)	$102k	R+7
IL-10	Seals	$1.85M	$158k	$25k	Kirk	$3.48M	(none)	(none)	R+7
IL-11	Pavich	$526k	(none)	(none)	Weller	$1.84M	(none)	(none)	R+10
IN-03	Hayhurst	$691k	(none)	(none)	Souder	$634k	$225k	$1k	R+8
KY-02	Weaver	$878k	$331k	$104k	Lewis	$1.96M	$42k	$10k	R+11
KY-04	Lucas	$1.47M	$2.71M	$10k	Davis	$3.87M	$2.31M	$13k	R+8
MI-08	Marcinkowski	$551k	(none)	(none)	Rogers	$1.85M	(none)	$8k	R+12
MI-09	Skinner	$384k	(none)	(none)	Knollenberg	$2.78M	(none)	$3k	R+5
NC-08	Kissell	$683k	(none)	$200k	Hayes	$2.37M	(none)	$8k	R+0
NE-01	Moul	$979k	(none)	(none)	Fortenberry	$1.12M	(none)	$4k	R+17
NE-02	Esch	$411k	(none)	(none)	Terry	$962k	(none)	$1k	R+9
NJ-07	Stender	$1.89M	$103k	$3k	Ferguson	$2.92M	$48k	$16k	R+1
NM-01	Madrid	$3.32M	$2M	$1.17M	Wilson	$4.66M	$2.03M	$831k	R+1
NV-03	Hafen	$1.5M	$308k	$1.14M	Porter	$2.99M	$476k	$2k	R+2
NY-03	Mejias	$908k	(none)	(none)	King	$2.06M	(none)	$1k	R+12
NY-25	Maffei	$912k	$446k	$5k	Walsh	$1.77M	$375k	$51k	R+2
NY-26	Davis	$2.37M	$423k	$248k	Reynolds	$5.2M	$1.03M*	$32k	R+4
NY-29	Massa	$1.44M	(none)	$144k	Kuhl	$1.46M	$233k	$5k	R+4
OH-01	Cranley	$2M	$1.28M	$699k	Chabot	$2.95M	$1.46M	$21k	R+5
OH-02	Wulsin	$1.02M	(none)	$237k**	Schmidt	$750k	$333k	?	R+1
OH-12	Shamansky	$1.64M	(none)	$3k	Tiberi	$2.97M	(none)	(none)	R+15
OH-15	Kilroy	$2.68M	$1.62M	$1.35M	Pryce	$4.63M	$1.81M	$82k	R+0
PA-06	Murphy	$4.04M	$3.01M	$222k	Gerlach	$3.46M	$3.89M	$52k	R+1
PA-15	Dertinger	$88k	(none)	(none)	Dent	$1.26M	(none)	(none)	R+10
VA-02	Kellam	$1.59M	$1.16M	$719k	Drake	$2.32M	$1.36M	$15k	R+3
VA-10	Feder	$1.54M	(none)	(none)	Wolf	$1.72M	(none)	$2k	R+16
WA-05	Goldmark	$1.15M	$321k	(none)	McMorris	$1.84M	(none)	$6k	R+12
WA-08	Burner	$2.98M	$2.02M	$727k	Reichert	$2.98M	$2.36M	$22k	R+3
WV-02	Callaghan	$614k	(none)	(none)	Capito	$3.07M	$25k	(none)	R+14
WY-AL	Trauner	$927k	(none)	(none)	Cubin	$1.25M	$249k	$64k	R+0
Total		$50.1M	$17.9M	$7.6M		$81.6M	$22.1M	$1.4M

Notes: *This expenditure was made by the RNC, not the NRCC.

**Due to the labyrinthian backstory of Jean Schmidt’s travails in OH-02 from 2005-06, it’s difficult to sort out which expenditures apply to which period of her career: the special election of 2005, the primary battle last spring, and the 2006 general. I did my best to sort it out, but the picture isn’t entirely clear. For that reason, take these figures with a grain of salt.

Unsurprisingly, Republicans enjoyed more of a financial edge in these races; combining all expenditures, there was a nearly $30 million gap between Republican and Democratic expenditures in these 34 districts. The NRCC did not swamp out the DCCC in these districts by a large margin. NRCC/RNC buys amounted to 55% of the party committee expenditures, while the DCCC was responsible for the remainder. This is very close to the 56-44 NRCC ratio in the seats that the Democrats did pick up from incumbents.

Obviously, this list will bring up some woulda-coulda-shouldas: imagine what Larry Kissell or Eric Massa or Linda Stender could have accomplished with more DCCC IEs, for instance. But it should also highlight some badly underperforming incumbents for next time: Knollenberg in MI-09, Terry in NE-02, and Dent in PA-15, for instance, all posted very underwhelming returns given the financial uncompetitiveness of each of their races.

Oh, and speaking of Linda Stender, here’s one maddening note from last November’s results: if the 3176 votes that the “Withdraw Troops Now Party” candidate won in NJ-07 had been cast for Stender instead, she would have won by about 250 votes. Sigh.

On the weekend, I’ll conclude this series with expenditure round-ups for competitive open seats and the select districts where Democratic incumbents were on the defensive.

Continuing our analysis of House race expenditures of the 05/06 elections cycle (we looked at the top ten non-party committee expenditures of the cycle on Tuesday), today I’ll be posting total expenditures from the 22 races where a Democratic challenger beat a Republican incumbent (with the exception of TX-23, where I haven’t been able to accumulate all the relevant data yet). And by total, I mean everything except expenditures from the shadowy 527s: candidate expenditures (listed under the “Spent” column), party committee expenditures, and independent expenditures from all sources.

Here’s what I’ve tallied up:

District	Candidate	Spent	DCCC IEs	Other IEs	Incumbent	Spent	NRCC IEs	Other IEs
AZ-05	Mitchell	$1.89M	$2.12M	$1.02M	Hayworth	$2.94M	$2.25M	$7k
CA-11	McNerney	$2.34M	$216k	$1.1M	Pombo	$4.51M	$1.43M	$18k
CT-02	Courtney	$2.37M	$2.07M	$1k	Simmons	$3.09M	$2.74M	$14k
CT-05	Murphy	$2.44M	$2.08M	$975k	Johnson	$4.98M	$1.88M	$456k
FL-22	Klein	$4.14M	$2.31M	$25k	Shaw	$5.19M	$3.35M	$217k
IN-02	Donnelly	$1.49M	$918k	$355k	Chocola	$3.39M	$383k	$43k
IN-08	Ellsworth	$1.72M	$2.21M	$166k	Hostettler	$530k	$1.87M	$21k
IN-09	Hill	$1.86M	$3.08M	$75k	Sodrel	$2.64M	$3.25M	$69k
IA-02	Loebsack	$443k	(none)	(none)	Leach	$519k	$21k	(none)
KS-02	Boyda	$655k	$652k	(none)	Ryun	$1.03M	$272k	(none)
KY-03	Yarmuth	$2.2M	$321k	$5k	Northup	$3.4M	$248k	$1.01M
MN-01	Walz	$1.23M	$371k	$722k	Gutknecht	$1.69M	$409k	$22k
NC-11	Shuler	$1.75M	$171k	$267k	Taylor	$4.11M	$1.54M	$19k
NH-01	Shea-Porter	$286k	(none)	(none)	Bradley	$856k	$21k	(none)
NH-02	Hodes	$1.47M	$1.12M	$198k	Bass	$1.21M	$472k	$24k
NY-19	Hall	$1.57M	(none)	$5k	Kelly	$2.46M	$19k	(none)
NY-20	Gillibrand	$2.47M	$789k	$333k	Sweeney	$3.38M	$592k	(none)
PA-04	Altmire	$1M	$399k	$739k	Hart	$2.17M	$619k	$19k
PA-07	Sestak	$2.92M	$1.93M	$277k	Weldon	$2.89M	$3.56M	$13k
PA-08	Murphy	$2.35M	$1.72M	$189k	Fitzpatrick	$3.13M	$3.62M	$11k
PA-10	Carney	$1.51M	$1.11M	$683k	Sherwood	$2.27M	$1.51M	$10k
Total		$38.1M	$23.6M	$7.1M		$56.4M	$30.1M	$2M

Now, obviously, these numbers don’t tell anything close to the full story–they don’t discern between positive and negative expenditures, the nature of the expenditures, and the time frame of the expenditures. But the basic framework makes it a decent starting point for our discussion. Note that total expenditures from all sources gave the Republicans a nearly $20 million edge ($89M to $69M) in these 21 districts. Also note how the mediocre fundraising of former New Hampshire Reps. Bass ($1.2M) and Bradley ($0.86M) foreshadowed their surprise defeats last November. Another interesting fact: in this top tier of House races, Republican-allied PACs were almost nowhere to be found–in fact, if it weren’t for the $1 million spent by the National Association of Realtors PAC in support of Anne Northup (KY-03), Democrats would’ve enjoyed a 7-to-1 non-party IE advantage in these districts. Instead, they settled for 7-to-2.

Tomorrow I’ll be posting part two of this discussion, featuring expenditures from open seats, competitive races where Democratic challengers fell short, and the few races where Republican House challengers put Democratic incumbents on the defensive.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been spending a bit of time doing research into independent expenditures made by party committees and independent PACs to get a better sense of how the IE battle played out in many key races across the country. One of the things that I thought would be interesting to share with you all is a top ten list, for both our side and theirs, of the biggest non-party committee expenditures of the cycle for House races. Here’s what the Republican-allied side looks like:

District	Candidate	Committee	For/Against	Total Expenditures
KY-03	NORTHUP, ANNE	NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS PAC	For	$1,004,275.00
NM-01	WILSON, HEATHER	NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS PAC	For	$761,734.00
ID-01	GRANT, LARRY	CLUB FOR GROWTH INC PAC	Against	$441,437.17
CT-05	JOHNSON, NANCY	AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION PAC	For	$318,426.00
FL-22	SHAW, CLAY	AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION PAC	For	$202,179.00
GA-06	PRICE, THOMAS	PAC OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ORTHOPAEDIC SURGEONS	For	$200,000.00
AZ-08	GRAF, RANDY	MINUTEMAN PAC INC	For	$115,482.80
CT-05	JOHNSON, NANCY	PAC OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ORTHOPAEDIC SURGEONS	For	$100,000.00
FL-08	KELLER, RIC	NATIONAL RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION PAC	For	$100,000.00
IA-01	WHALEN, MIKE	NATIONAL RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION PAC	For	$100,000.00

And here’s what our side looks like:

District	Candidate	Committee	For/Against	Total Expenditures
OH-01	CHABOT, STEVE	AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE COUNTY & MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES	Against	$620,670.00
OH-15	PRYCE, DEBORAH	AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE COUNTY & MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES	Against	$530,425.00
VA-02	DRAKE, THELMA	MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION	Against	$529,537.70
CT-05	JOHNSON, NANCY	AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE COUNTY & MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES	Against	$514,354.00
AZ-05	HAYWORTH, JD	NEA FUND FOR CHILDREN AND PUBLIC EDUCATION	Against	$480,763.99
CA-11	POMBO, RICHARD	DEFENDERS OF WILDLIFE ACTION FUND	Against	$470,004.36
IL-08	BEAN, MELISSA	NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE	For	$465,568.00
CT-05	JOHNSON, NANCY	MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION	Against	$444,424.00
OH-15	PRYCE, DEBORAH	MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION	Against	$417,623.00
PA-10	SHERWOOD, DON	AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE COUNTY & MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES	Against	$361,750.00

Aside from a few big players (most notably the National Realtors PAC, who also made considerable expenditures on behalf of Ed Case‘s primary challenge to Sen. Daniel Akaka, as well as Melissa Bean’s re-election campaign), there is a steep drop-off on the Republican side in terms of the number and quality of IEs relative to the robust and broadly-focused expenditures made by Democratic-allied PACs. Another thing to note is that these Republican expenditures are listed as disproportionately positive, while the Democratic expenditures were disproportionately classified as negative expenditures. Keep in mind, though, that such homogenous categories may betray the shades of grey that exist in such expenditures–this money could have been spent on advertising that contained a mix of positive and negative messages, but the particular committee may have chosen to file an expenditure as “for” a candidate rather than “against” someone else.

I’m still puttering around with a lot more numbers like these, so if anyone has any other research suggestions under the category of expenditures, please feel free to make a suggestion.