March 16, 2008
(Updated March 25, 2008)

Political Money Rankings of 228 Kansas PACs

In its Jan 10,  2008 report, the #1 Kansas PAC (from Missouri) raised over $1 million, spent almost half-a-million, and has over three-quarter million in the bank.  The top 15 PACs account for nearly 60% of contributions received by PACs, about half of the expenditures, and over 55% of the PAC money in the bank for the 2008 elections.  See the rankings of all 228 Kansas PACs.

The Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission publishes their "Top 20" PAC list every year, such as this one from 2006:

The Meadowlark has criticized such reports as not reflecting the true political participation or power of a PAC since the rankings above are restricted to PAC contributions to candidates.  PAC contributions to other PACs, or a PAC's independent expenditures are not reflected in the above "Top 20" ranking.  While a separate yearly ranking should be done, a more meaningful report would be one over the entire 2005-2006 election cycle.

There are several problems with this 2006 "Top 20" ranking report, including:

• The Heavy Constructors' PAC, Kansas City, MO, gave $45,000 to candidates and should have been listed as the #15 Kansas PAC in the above chart.  But, since this group files "verified statements" instead of a PAC report, the group was not  included in the above analysis.  The Heavy Constructors' $45,000 in contributions to statewide political candidates underestimates their overall political power reflected by their spending of  $198,300.
• Kansas for Lifesaving Cures was ranked #7 with $72,837 in contribution to candidates, but that figure hides their $418,543 in total expenditures, including $259,348 on mailings and $24,859 on phone calls likely for Paul Morrison and Kathleen Sebelius.
• Kansas Alliance for Education PAC spent $5500 on candidates and was not ranked, but had $182,104 in total expenditures.
• Kansas Traditional Republican Majority (KTRM) PAC spent $2700 on candidates and was not ranked, but had $157,650 in total expenditures.
• ProKanDo PAC spent $2700 on candidates and was not ranked, but had $651,200 in monetary expenditures and $163,260 in in-kind contributions.  ProKanDo's $814,460 ($651,200 + $163,260) in political expenditures deserved a #1 political money ranking yet it didn't make the "Top 20" list.
• The KNEA PAC was the #1 PAC spending $228,300 but what about their other $107,244 in spending?  KNEA PAC spent $335,544 in 2006 and another $86,484 in 2005.  KNEA's total spending in the 2005-2006 cycle was $422,028.

A better report.  This new Meadowlark summary report, Summary of Contributions and Expenditures of Kansas PACs: Jan 10, 2008 Reports, shows the PAC name, the report city, the chair and treasurer of the PAC, links to their most recent reports (like before), the $ Raised, $ Spent, $ In the Bank, $ In-Kind, and Comments.  All PACs in this summary report can now be ranked in each category to form a rankings report.  A sample  page of this rankings report of all PACs is shown below.  

Click here to download PDF

Money Rankings of Kansas PACs:  Jan 10, 2008 Reports

I plan to create similar reports for each reporting period this year, as well as an aggregate report for the 2007-2008 election cycle.  This aggregate election cycle rankings report should explain political power of Kansas PACs in our elections this year.

How well do the rankings explain all the political money?

The table above shows the Top 50 list below explains about 85% of all money raised, spent and in the bank.