Congressman Dennis Moore
In June the Center for Responsive Politics, the organization behind OpenSecrets.org, published an article, Blue Dog Bark Backed by Insurers, which describes how the “Blue Dog” Democrats in the House compare to non-Blue Dog Democrats in their contribution receipts from various health-related sectors.
How does Blue Dog Congressman Dennis Moore from Kansas compare to other Blue Dogs given the data published by Open Secrets?
From the article by Linday Renick Mayer:
The typical member of the Blue Dog caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives has received $10,300 more from insurers than the typical non-Blue Dog Democrat in the House (including health and accident insurers, HMOs and other health services) and only $3,625 less than the typical House Republican. Earlier this month, the Blue Dogs sent a letter to House leadership arguing that a public option should be created “only if insurance market reforms and increased competition don’t lower costs on their own,” according to the Politico.
I first expanded the definition of “typical member” of the Blue Dog caucus over that given by Mayer. Mayer defined “typical” to refer to a median value. A median is a better measure of “middle” than an average when there are a small number of very large or small values.
My expanded definition of “typical” is to include the middle 50% of values (the interquartile range) of all Blue dog contributions. How does Congressman Moore compare to this middle 50% of Blue Dogs? Did he get more or less money than this typical range of contributions?
The chart below shows a boxplot, which shows the middle 50% of values as a rectangle, with the median as a dark horizontal line, usually near the middle of the rectangle. Dennis Moore’s contributions from various health-related groups, as compiled by Open Secrets, are shown by the blue X’s.
Health-related contributions to Dennis Moore compared to other Blue Dogs (click above to see larger version)
Similar to the logarithmic charts used by the PULSE diagrams from National Institute on Money in State Politics, the boxplot chart above shows political contributions on a logarithmic scale to cover a very wide range of values. Be careful in interpolating values.
Contributions to Moore are much higher than typical in 4 of the 6 cases, and much lower than typical in 1 of the 6 cases. Only with contributions received from pharmaceutical concerns were Moore’s receipts about the same as typical contributions to other Blue Dogs.
Remembering the logarithmic scale above, and using “typical” in the follow to mean median, contributions to Moore as a ratio to typical were as follows:
In the Health Sector, Moore received 1.5 times as much in contributions as the typical Blue Dog.
From Health Insurance providers, Moore received 4.7 times as much in contributions as the typical Blue Dog.
From Health Professionals, Moore received 1.8 times as much in contributions as the typical Blue Dog.
From Hospitals, Moore received 2.4 times as much in contributions as the typical Blue Dog.
Moore received much less form Nursing Homes, receiving only about 0.3 times as much as the typical Blue Dog.
How will contributions to Moore by those involved in health care sway his vote on health care reform?
See this PDF of boxplot charts for all members of the Blue Dog Coalition.
Related:
- Blue DOG PAC, Open Secrets.org
- How did Congressman Dennis Moore not know about “the letter” before today?, Kansas Meadowlark, Aug 18, 2009.
Tags: Blue Dog Coalition, Congressman Dennis Moore, Health Care, Political Contributions
Mr. Glenn, Good political investigative work. Not only on how Moore is only fiscally conservative when the dems are the minority. But suddenly, when they are the majority a blue dog dem is just as bad as the GOP was concerning a lack of being fiscally conservative.
You and I should meet some time. You are welcome to investigate me on any political issue. I have no problem stating what I have determined seems to be consensus of the voters of the 3rd Congressional District voters and non-voters. So, give me a call when you want to meet.
Tom Scherer, Candidate, U.S. Congress, a true fiscal conservative that walks the talk, regardless of whether I am elected to Congress or merely a public advocate. Call me. 403-8584. You can verify I am filed candidate for the 2010 election cycle at http://www.fec.gov. I look forward to meeting you.
Shame on Kansas Dennis Moore! Thanks to everyone’s calls, the bill passed!!!
NumbersUSA | For Lower Immigration Levels
Source: http://www.numbersusa.com
Before a final vote was taken on Rep. Raul Grijalva’s (D-Ariz.) bill, H.R.324, that would create a National Heritage Area in Southern Arizona, the House voted, 259-to-167, to include an amendment that would allow the Border Patrol to continue its normal enforcement operations in the area.
http://www.numbersusa.com/cont.....tid=949222