Redstate

By Stay Red Kansas Posted in FEC — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Last week, www.stayredkansas.com promised an in-depth look at Congressman Dennis Moore’s most recent finance report. For the last few cycles, Moore has proved to be one of the most difficult 'Red State' Dems to unseat.

Before looking in-depth, though, Stay Red had taken a brief look at the report, noting that a moderate amount of Dennis’ donations seemed to originate in the hands of Political Action Committees and other special interest groups.

After further examination, we were wrong. Way wrong. Was it because Dennis actually received financial support from a high number of local Kansas donors? Unfortunately, no. We’ve always known that Dennis Moore was a friend to special interest groups, but this report paints his ‘friendship’ in an entirely original light.

Stay Red Kansas was incorrect in its’ original assessment not because Dennis accepted more individual donations than originally believed, but rather because Dennis Moore stocked his most recent financial report with P.A.C. money to the tune of 86%. That’s right – of the $106,577 in donations reported by Dennis Moore, 86% came directly from issue advocacy Political Action Committees.

If that figure isn’t disturbing enough – let’s take a closer look.

Not only did Dennis Moore sell his soul to special interest funding – he did so predominantly to business-crippling labor unions! The list of donors reads like an annual AFL-CIO meeting. To name a few – International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and National Pawnbrokers’ Association.

Despite the fact that Moore’s non-P.A.C. contributions are so miniscule – we’ll go ahead and give ‘em a look. Of the $14,750 in individual donations he received, a startling 32% came from out-of-state connections, predominantly in Washington, D.C. This leaves roughly 9% of Moore’s donations - $10,500 – as Third District funding.

We’ll repeat that – Dennis Moore accepted just over $106,000 during the last reporting period. Of that lofty total, just over 9% managed to come from the Congressional District he’s elected to represent.

If you were looking for proof that Dennis Moore is out of touch with Kansas’ Third Congressional District, this might be the best out there. While Nancy Boyda struggled so mightily to gain Kansas support that she was forced to go to liberal hotbeds in California and New York for funding, Dennis Moore decided it easier to sell his soul to special interests.

We’ve seen plenty of ‘bought-and-sold’ Congressman, but 91%? Never – we’ll repeat never – has Stay Red Kansas seen such a ridiculously high number of P.A.C. funding.

This figure begs the question – with so much of it already accounted for in special interest support, what proportion of Moore’s voting record and legislative focus remain for his District?