Campaign Expenditures and Contributions

Topic:
CAMPAIGN FINANCE; CAMPAIGNS (GENERAL); ELECTIONS (GENERAL); STATISTICAL INFORMATION;
Location:
CAMPAIGNS - FINANCE;

OLR Research Report


August 2, 2005		2005-R-0604
CAMPAIGN EXPENDITURES AND CONTRIBUTIONS IN CONNECTICUT 2000-2004

By: Kristin Sullivan, Research Analyst

The Institute on Money in State Politics (www. followthemoney. org) maintains campaign finance data by state, and the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC) and the Office of the Secretary of the State (SOTS) maintain such information for Connecticut. This report contains statistics from these three sources on campaign expenditures and contributions in Connecticut during the 2000, 2002, and 2004 elections.

Table 1 shows campaign spending by legislative candidates during the 2000 and 2004 elections (summary information on the 2002 election is not readily available). In 2000, Senate and House candidates spent on average $ 42,823 and $ 13,080, respectively, and in 2004, they spent on average $ 71,603 and $ 16,767.

Table 2 shows the amount of money that statewide and legislative candidates raised (i. e. , committee receipts) during the 2002 election. The maximum amount that a statewide office candidate raised was $ 6,582,070 and the minimum was $ 4,885. Senate and House candidates raised on average $ 49,342 and $ 15,884, respectively.

Table 3 summarizes data from the SEEC’s 2000 and 2002 General Assembly Audit Programs. It breaks down contributions to legislative candidates by committees, individuals, and other sources, and through ad books purchases. In 2002, each source equaled roughly the same percent of total contributions as it did in 2000.

Finally, Table 4 shows campaign contributions by interest group as defined and classified by the Institute on Money in State Politics. For all three election years, lawyers, lobbyists, and party affiliates (e. g. , committees or party officials) were the largest contributors proportionately.

TABLE 1: LEGISLATIVE CANDIDATE SPENDING IN THE 2000 AND 2004 ELECTIONS


	*Number of Committees Reporting*	*Minimum Expenditures of Committees Reporting*	*Maximum Reported Expenditures of Committees Reporting*	*Average Expenditures of Committees Reporting*	*Total Reported Expenditures*
2000
Senate	57	$ 800	$ 203,745	$ 42,823	$ 2,440,896
House	230	0	85,506	13,080	3,008,322
TOTAL					5,449,218
2004
Senate	53	$ 150	$ 213,044	$ 71,603	$ 3,723,354
House	203	42	71,228	16,767	3,386,889
TOTAL					7,110,243

Source: OLR’s review of candidates’ “Statement of Receipts and Expenditures” (ED-45) filed with the SOTS (see reports 2001-R-0237 and 2005-R-0254)

TABLE 2: STATEWIDE AND LEGISLATIVE CANDIDATE RECEIPTS IN THE 2002 ELECTION


	*Number of Committees*	*Minimum Receipts*	*Maximum Receipts*	*Average Receipts*	*Total Receipts*
Governor & Lt. Governor	2	$ 2,392,920	$ 6,582,070	*	$ 8,974,990
Secretary of the State	3	108,265	967,673	*	1,075,938
Comptroller	3	4,885	748,035	*	752,920
Attorney General	2	177,398	432,599	*	609,997
State Treasurer	4	279,853	581,751	*	861,604
Senate	75	0	274,957	49,342	3,704,413
House	299	0	91,882	15,884	4,850,183
TOTAL ESTIMATED RECEIPTS					20,830,045

Sources: (1) Institute on Money in State Politics for statewide candidates and (2) SOTS

* Average receipts for statewide offices are not given because in all cases, there were only two viable, major party committees whose receipts are represented in the Minimum and Maximum columns.

TABLE 3: LEGISLATIVE CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE 2000 AND 2002 ELECTIONS


	*2000*		2002*
	Total Contributions	Percent of Total	Total Contributions (to audited candidates)	Percent of Total
Ad Book Receipts
Senate	$ 424,902		248,120
House	589,302		297,850
*Sub-total*	*1,014,204*	*14%*	*545,970*	*14%*
Committee Contributions
Senate	1,231,370		706,657
House	1,358,514		633,196
*Sub-total*	*2,589,884*	*37%*	*1,339,853*	*34%*
Individual Contributions
Senate	1,132,971		805,705
House	1,986,775		1,062,847
*Sub-total*	*3,119,746*	*45%*	*1,868,552*	*47%*
Other Contributions
Senate	96,577		73,478
House	183,884		154,465
*Sub-total*	*280,461*	4%	*227,943*	6%
TOTAL	7,004,295	100%	3,982,319	100%

Source: SEEC

* Figures represent actual contributions to 197 out of 374 legislative candidates. The SEEC estimates that the contributions to all 374 candidates, not just those that it audited, totaled $ 7,964,632.

TABLE 4: CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS BY INTEREST IN THE 2000, 2002, AND 2004 ELECTIONS


	*2000*		2002* (includes statewide races)		2004*
	Total Contributions	Percent of Total	Total Contributions	Percent of Total	Total Contributions	Percent of Total
Total contributions è Contributor** ê	$ 8,937,281	100. 00	$ 24,603,799	100. 00	$ 11,657,529	100. 00
Party	1,039,686	11. 63	1,766,554	7. 18	1,664,420	14. 28
§ Party Committees	896,473	-	1,454,304	-	1,131,963	-
§ Leadership PACs	108,714	-	226,250	-	53,365	-
§ Candidate Committees	24,689	-	748	-	458,547	-
§ Republican Officials, Candidates, and Former Members	6,945	-	63,678	-	12,910	-

-Continued-


	*2000*		2002* (includes statewide races)		2004*
	Total Contributions	Percent of Total	Total Contributions	Percent of Total	Total Contributions	Percent of Total
§ Democratic Officials, Candidates, and Former Members	2,865	-	19,600	-	7,560	-
§ Nonpartisan Officials, Candidates, and Former Members	N/A	N/A	1,675	-	N/A	-
§ Third-Party Officials, Candidates, and Former Members	N/A	N/A	300	-	75	-
Lawyers & Lobbyists	846,644	9. 47	2,322,172	9. 44	870,611	7. 47
Health	469,479	5. 25	901,055	3. 66	409,522	3. 51
Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate	467,906	5. 24	2,259,927	9. 19	670,620	5. 75
Other/Retiree/Civil Servants	424,642	4. 75	2,256,569	9. 17	676,384	5. 80
General Business	387,154	4. 33	1,022,018	4. 15	301,155	2. 58
Labor	382,895	4. 28	851,463	3. 46	520,967	4. 47
Candidate Contributions	152,066	1. 70	400,122	1. 63	532,977	4. 57
Construction	144,147	1. 61	1,080,174	4. 39	186,775	1. 60
Energy and Natural Resources	129,605	1. 45	276,035	1. 12	83,420	0. 72
Communications and Electronics	114,244	1. 28	287,473	1. 17	124,378	1. 07
Transportation	78,840	0. 88	249,600	1. 01	85,260	0. 73
Ideology/Single Issue	73,876	0. 83	66,570	0. 27	82,153	0. 70
Agriculture	42,145	0. 47	87,180	0. 35	52,970	0. 45
Defense	50	0. 00	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Source: Institute on Money in State Politics

N/A means not applicable

* The Institute on Money in State Politics’ data is 95% complete for election cycle.

** Contribution totals include contributions to party committees, not just candidates.

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