Money plays a big role in politics — It always has. Too often, though, our attention is drawn to federal elections and not to the money game going on in our own backyards. So, who are some of the top players in state level politics? We used data from the National Institute on Money in State Politics to map out the biggest non-individual spenders in each state:
Click on the image to zoom in.
After digging into the data a little further, we found a few eye-opening trends (note: this analysis looks at the top spender in each state, not total contributions):
Unions spend more than you think
Unions are highly active in state elections and are the top donor in 20 states. The highest spending unions in those states ranged from as little as $21,000.00 in Vermont to as much as $3,579,729.00 in Illinois, with the average amount sitting at $623,773.80.
It’s easy to simply assume that the next several large donors must be corporations, but this usually isn’t the case. In the majority of states where the top contributor is a union, the following large contributors are also unions and/or trade organizations, with a few corporations sprinkled in. For instance, the majority of top funders in Alaska, Hawaii, Michigan, Ohio, and Oregon state elections are individuals, unions, and trade organizations.
Wait… What’s a trade organization?
Looking at the map, you may notice that trade organizations are the largest contributor in 15 states. It’s important to note that they are also funding campaigns in nearly every other state, generally holding multiple spots in the top 10 list of non-individual contributors.
Many people group trade organizations in with unions, but there are subtle differences which set them apart. Aside from the fact that they use a separate IRS tax code, they also have different objectives. Unions are primarily focused on promoting the interests of their workers, while trade organizations are more concerned about promoting the industry itself.
Even within trade associations, however, all is not what it seems. Trde associations can accept unlimited contributions from corporations, unions, and individuals, but are not legally required to disclose their donors. While many trade associations are genuinely trying to improve working conditions or business practices across their industry, many others operate as “dark money” groups — meaning that they effectively serve as a front for special interests who want to keep their political activity a secret.
An analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics found that “dark money” spending has exploded in recent years:
…[S]pending by organizations that do not disclose their donors has increased from less than $5.2 million in 2006 to well over $300 million in the 2012 presidential cycle and more than $174 million in the 2014 midterms.
The three primary trade sectors represented on the map are real estate, healthcare, and legal.
So, what about the corporations?!?
Corporations have very clear interests, and generally their biggest concern is earning a profit. So it’s unsurprising that corporations are most active in state elections that directly impact their business, like Walt Disney in Florida and MGM Resorts International in Nevada. However, their reach is not prolific — only two corporations are the biggest spender in more than one state: AT&T and Duke Energy.
In fact, there are only 14 states where a corporations is the top contributor. Interestingly enough, those states fall far below the spending seen in the states where the top contributor is a union or trade organization. Leading contributions that came from a corporation averaged $231,310.79, with the most being $663,984.00 by Walt Disney in Florida and the least being $39,034.00 by Cozen O’Connor PC in Delaware.
So, how is that even possible?
While corporations do appear to make fewer direct contributions in state elections when compared to unions and trade organizations, that doesn’t mean they aren’t spending big to buy political influence:
- Corporations invest an enormous amount of money into federal elections to affect federal policy and legislation. For example, an analysis by the Sunlight Foundation concluded that just the top 200 most politically active companies spend billions of dollars on federal politics and get trillions worth of benefits in return. That’s a pretty solid return on investment.
- Corporations often hide their political activity from the public (and even their own shareholders!) by funneling their money through so-called “dark money” organizations. These groups can receive unlimited money from anyone — corporations, billionaires, unions — anyone. And they don’t have to disclose where a single cent of it comes from.
State elections garner a lot of attention and large sums of money are given to campaigns that will propagate the interests of the donors. You could argue that union and trade organization involvement in these elections is a positive thing since they represent local workers and businesses.
However, the result ends up being the same, whether the money comes from wealthy elites, corporations, trade organizations, or unions: our politicians end up beholden to a small group of special interests rather than the will of their entire constituency.
If you’d like to look at the spending in your state, or just want to dig a little deeper, check out the National Institute on Money in State Politics.