On Monday the National Institute on Money in State Politics issued a report “No Small Change: Unitemized Contributions Add Little to Campaign Coffers”. This report said state-level candidate, party and ballot measure committees are reporting a small percentage of donations as unitemized lump sums.
But what about unitemized contributions to Political Action Committees? In the last few years the Kansas National Education Association PAC received over $500,000 in unitemized contributions — nearly 95% of all their contributions!
The Money in State Politics report said Kansas state candidates received about 2% of their contributions from unitemized contributions. A very small amount of unitemized contributions were reported by Kansas political parties:
California and Kansas state party committees reported less than 1 percent of contributions as unitemized while the other states listed 6 percent to nearly 29 percent in itemized contributions. The Kansas Republican Party itemized all receipts …
In most states ballot measures committees reported less in unitemized contributions than candidate and state party committees, but Kansas was an exception:
Kansas ballot measure committees listed 13.8 percent of contributions as lump sums, the most in any state. The Kansas committees were raising money around a 2005 constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
The Money in State Politics report didn’t address political action committees, or they would have discovered the staggering amount of unitemized contributions received by the Kansas National Education Association PAC:
| Reporting Period | Unitemized
Contributions |
Total
Contributions |
% Unitemized |
| Jan 1, 2007 – Dec 31, 2007 | $205,696 | $215,792 | 95.3% |
| Oct 27, 2006 – Dec 31, 2006 | $25,073 | $26,105 | 96.0% |
| July 21, 2006 – Oct 26, 2006 | $0 | $6,171 | 0.0% |
| Jan 1, 2006 – July 2006 | $96,388 | $103,662 | 93.0% |
| Jan 1, 2005 – Dec 31, 2005 | $214,444 | $221,329 | 96.9% |
| TOTAL 2005-2007 | $541,601 | $573,059 | 94.5% |
KNEA receives these unitemized contributions from a number of teachers across Kansas. The money is collected on a statewide basis, but then is rebated back to a number of local PACs. With this arrangement, KNEA PAC can have the political power and legal rights of two dozen PACs:
If the money can be rebated back to local KNEA “Uniserv” PACs, we need a new state law that these local PACs should report their local contributions and expenditures, instead of nearly exclusively the rebates from KNEA.
With the unitemized money, KNEA not only gives money to candidates but gets involved with a number of other PACs. See the related articles below.
In addition to the unitemized contributions received from Kansas sources, KNEA and some other Kansas PACs received contributions from the NEA PAC. For example, the Democratic Governor’s Association received huge contributions from NEA, and then both the NEA and the DGA gave to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ Bluestem Fund PAC.
Related
- Summary of Contributions and Expenditures of Kansas Political Action Committees (PACs), Kansas Meadowlark, March 15, 2008.
- Why did KNEA/NEA channel $130,000 to the Kansas Alliance for Education PAC in 2006?, Kansas Meadowlark, Nov 4, 2007.
- Case Study of State Rep Gene Rardin’s Election: The Kansas Democratic Party’s Method of Buying a State Representative Via Their Kansas Coordinated Campaign, Kansas Meadowlark, July 22, 2007.
- Kansas Democrats Use Congressional District Party “Committees” as Political $uperfund To Pump Money to Kansas Democratic Party, Sebelius, Morrison and Pollsters, Kansas Meadowlark, Jan 23, 2007.
- 2004 Cycle: ProKanDo PAC Teams with KNEA PAC to “buy” the Kansas Senate, Kansas Meadowlark, Oct 3, 2006
Tags: Democratic Governors Association, Kathleen Sebelius, KNEA PAC, NEA, Political Action Committee
