Today the National Institute on Money in State Politics announced they had updated their data for Kansas for the 2008 elections.
FollowTheMoney.org obtains data from the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission and updates its database and analysis for both candidates and political parties, and provides that information online for free. Their grid page shows they’ve processed 1517 reports from 393 Kansas recipients.
Here are the highlights of their update:
- Kansas state elections saw a 24 percent increase in total contributions between 2004 and 2008 from $12 million to almost $15 million.
- Legislative candidates raised 23 percent more in 2008 than was raised in 2004 going from $8.7 million in 2004 to $10.8 million.
- Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who is currently facing the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee to become the Obama administration’s secretary of health and human services, raised $268,000 in 2008 in 2004 she raised $669,435. In 2006 when she was up for re-election she raised $5.7 million.
- In 2008 political party committees raised $3.5 million up from the $1.9 million raised in 2004.
- In 2004 the Kansas Democratic Party raised 62 percent of the money attributed to political party committees in the state, but in 2008, the Kansas Democrats raised only 54 percent of what political parties raised.
Two summary tables shown below from their Kansas page is a good place to start looking at Kansas data:
TABLE 1: Candidates
| Office | Total | # of Candidates | Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Governor | No Active Candidates | ||
| Other Statewide |
$214,717
|
16
|
$13,420
|
| House |
$5,220,801
|
243
|
$21,485
|
| Senate |
$5,535,999
|
98
|
$56,490
|
| High Court |
$0
|
2
|
$0
|
| Appellate Court |
$0
|
4
|
$0
|
TABLE 2: Other Candidates and Committees
| Recipient | Total |
|---|---|
| Incumbents – Not Up For Election |
$370,102
|
| Party Committees |
$3,469,859
|
FollowTheMoney.org provides a sophisticated PULSE (Political Contribution Logarithmic Scatterplot Profile) diagram that provides a huge amount of information in a single interactive chart.
Winners are at the top, losers at the bottom. Horizontally both groups are arranged in order of total contributions, with Democrats in blue and Republicans in Red. Points for incumbents are shown with a yellow center. Third party candidates are shown in green.
A logarithmic money scale is used so a wide range of values can be displayed on a common scale without huge gaps. Be careful in estimating dollar figures using this logarithm dollar scale.
The two middle box plots show the variability in contributions of winners versus losers. The boxes show the interquartile range — the middle 50% of all values with the line in the box representing the median value. The large rectangle appears to show the interquartile range of all candidates, with the vertical line showing the median of all values. The medians appear near the center of the boxes unless the distribution is quite skewed.
The “whiskers” in the box plots show the expected range. Points extending beyond these lines can be considers “outliers” — unusually high or low values compare to all others.
Click here to see enlarged, interactive Kansas House 2008 PULSE Diagram.
Kansas House PULSE Diagram for 2008 Election Cycle (click on chart for enlarged, interactive chart)
For the Kansas House in 2008 the winning state rep raising the most money was Raj Goyle, who raised $96,104. Click on that point to see a breakdown of contributions. For example, you’ll see a chart like this for Raj Goyle:
Details from clicking on House winner point with most contributions
The winning House member raising the least was J. Robert Brookens, who only had $6030 in contributions.
The losing House candidate raising the most was Sean Tevis, who raised $110,107, while the losing candidate raising the least was Ed Coleman, who only raised $86.
Click here to see enlarged, interactive Kansas Senate 2008 PULSE Diagram.
Kansas Senate PULSE Diagram for 2008 Election Cycle (click on chart for enlarged, interactive chart)
The diagram shows the huge $219,785 raised by Laura Kelly to win her Senate seat, with $47,500 coming from party sources. On the low end, Ralph Ostmeyer won re-election by only raising $21,899.
The most raised by any losing candidate was $168,758 with $74,700 coming from the candidate. The least raised by a losing candidate was $200 by Rex Farley.
These PULSE diagrams are a great way to analyze political contribution data.
Related:
- Names in the News: Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, National Institute on Money in State Politics, Feb 25, 2009.
Tags: 2008 Election Cycle, House, Kansas, National Institute on Money in State Politics, Political Contribution Logarithmic Scatterplot Profile, PULSE diagram, Senate
